This baby quilt project has been designed by Laura Strutt, a designer maker and the author of a number of craft books. For more details on Laura’s books visit Amazon Author Central.
This project is kindly sponsored by The Cotton Patch – a specialist patchwork and quilting shop with a large range of pre-cut fabrics.
Jelly Rolls are a fun and easy way to work with a lot of coordinated prints – being pre-cut strips they can be great for adding to geometrical designs without the additional need for cutting. These strips are worked in to half square triangles which are endlessly versatile. You can create a wide range of designs and motifs – this one uses the placement to create an off-centre diamond design.
You will need…
Wild & Free Jelly Roll by Abi Hall for Moda – from The Cotton Patch
Solid cotton to coordinate – white used here – 2 yds
Print or plain cotton for backing 55in square
Vlieseline 278 Soya Mix wadding 55in square www.vlieseline.com/en/
Bias tape 1.5in wide – this can be custom made or pre-made as desired- approx 6m
Small, sharp quilting needle & cotton
Pins & quilt clips
Rotary cutter, ruler & cutting mat
Tailor’s Chalk or Fabric Pencil
Scissors
Sewing machine – with quilting and walking foot as desired
Iron & ironing board
Notes
The finished quilt measures approximately 51in square.
1/4in seam allowance is used throughout unless otherwise stated.
Tip: This quilt features coloured jelly roll strips and white fabrics; to avoid the seams ghosting to the front of the work, press the seams towards the darker fabrics where possible.
TIP: Using chain piecing, without cutting the threads between joining blocks, makes the construction of the quit a lot quicker.
To Sew
1. Create the Jelly Roll strips
From the Jelly Roll select 21 pre-cut strips and arrange into sets of three strips and seam together along the long sides. Press the seams to the side neatly. Repeat to make seven strips in total.
2. Trim the strips
Using the rotary cutter, ruler and mat, trim the strips into blocks measuring 6.5in. You will be able to cut six x 6.5in squares from each strip. Make 41 squares in total.
3. Prepare the white squares
Using the rotary cutter, ruler and mat, trim the white cotton into 41 blocks measuring 6.5in each.
With a ruler and fabric pencil draw a diagonal line through the centre of the white squares to mark the section for stitching.
4. Stitch and cut the squares
Place a white square onto a jelly roll square with the right sides facing and pin together. Using the centre line as a guide, work two seams, each 1/4in from the line to create the two half square triangles. Using the rotary cutter trim the squares along the line. Repeat to create 41 squares in the same manner.
5. Press and arrange the squares
Press the squares neatly ensuring the seam allowances are pressed over towards the jelly roll fabrics to avoid ghosting on the surface and arrange the quilt into nine blocks by nine blocks.
The half square motif means that you can create a wide range of different designs here – are just four examples of designs you can create.
6. Press and layer the quilt
Trim the quilt top to neaten and, with right side uppermost, place on top of the wadding and backing fabric with the right side of the backing fabric outermost, and press to neaten. Ensure that there is a small border of backing fabric and the wadding. Pin in place and quilt as desired. This project features straight line quilting to highlight the off-centre diamond design, but you can free motion quilt if preferred.
7. Trim the quilt
Using a rotary cutter, ruler and mat, carefully trim the excess backing and wadding and ensure that the quilt sides are straight and neat. Press the whole quilt.
8. Secure the binding
Position the binding around the right side of the quilt neatly aligning the raw edges and mitring the corners. Secure in place with machine stitching. Fold the binding over to the right side and press to neaten before securing into place with neat hand slip stitches to finish.
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Why not sew some baby blocks, or this soft toy elephant for the baby too?
