Wee Ones Baby Quilt Tutorial

I had two second cousins (Emma and Jonathan), born to my two cousins (Christy & Chad) a couple of weeks apart, and designed this baby quilt for them.

This quilt is called "Wee Ones for Emma":

 

I used a "Sweet" layer cake by Urban Chicks for Emma's quilt, and Flag Day Farm for Jonathan's quilt:

 

It would be too confusing to combine the tutorials for both, so I'll do a separate post for the two-color/Jonathan version later.

The quilt is made of 24 Pinwheel Blocks which are 6" finished, and 3 borders.  The "Wee Ones" quilt is 36" x 48" finished.

Okay, let's get started!

Supplies:

You'll need the following fabric:

1 Layer Cake or 24 cut 10" squares

1 1/2 Yards of Background Fabric

2 2/3 Yards Backing Fabric

Cutting Instructions:

From your background fabric, cut:

48 - 3  7/8" squares (cut each square in half diagonally)

2 - 2 1/2" x 28 1/2" strips

2 - 2  1/2" x 36 1/2" strips

2 - 3 1/2" x 36 1/2" strips

2 - 3  1/2" x 42 1/2" strips

From each of your 24 precut 10" squares, cut:

2 - 3  7/8" squares (cut in 1/2 diagonnally)

2 - 1 1/2" x 3 1/2" rectangles

1 - 2 1/4" x  6 1/2" rectangle

From the remaining fabric of your 10" squares, cut:

4 - 1 1/2" x 2 1/2" rectangles

6 - 2 1/4" x 6 1/2" rectangles

Here is my quilt (cut and ready for sewing):

 

Piecing The Blocks

1.    Pin one colored triangle to one background triangle along the wide edge, and stitch.  Press seam toward the dark.  Make 96.

 

2.    Lay out your blocks as follows:

 

Be sure your blocks are laid out correctly or you'll have to make friends with your seam ripper (and who likes to hang out with their seam ripper??)!

3.    Pin and stitch the top left square to top right square and the bottom left square to the bottom right square:

 

 

4.    Pin and stitch the top half of the pinwheel to the bottom half:

 

 

5.    To reduce the bulk where the 8 triangles meet, strip out the top 3 or 4 straight stitches on each side at the center as follows:

 

This allows you to open the seam in the middle which reduces the bulk.  You will see a tiny pinwheel in the center of the back of your block, and your seams will fall in opposite directions:

 

Oops!  I took this pix on Jonathan's quilt, but forgot it on Emma's!  But, you get the idea!

5.     You now have 24 finished blocks:

 

Piecing The Middle Border & Binding

1.    For the top/bottom middle border, stitch together 10 of the 1 1/2" x 3 1/2" rectangles.  Make 2.

2.    For the side middle border, stitch together 12 of the 1 1/2" x 3 1/2" strips, PLUS insert 2 of the 1 1/2" x 2 1/2" rectangles (for a total of 14 pieces).  Make 2.

 

3.    Pin and stitch the 30 binding rectangles (2 1/4" x 6 1/2") together.  Press seams open to reduce bulk:

 

 

Assembling The Quilt Top

1.    Stitch together 6 rows of 4 blocks each.

2.    Stitch 6 rows together.

 

3.    Stitch the 2 1/2" x 36 1/2" background strips to each side of the quilt.

4.    Stitch the 2 1/2" x 28 1/2" background strips to the top and bottom of the quilt.

 

5.    Stitch 1 1/2" x 40 1/2" pieced middle border to each side.

6.    Stitch 1 1/2" x 30 1/2" pieced middle border to top and bottom of quilt top.

 

7.    Stitch 3 1/2" x 42 1/2" outer border to sides of quilt.

8.    Stitch 3 1/2" x 36 1/2" outer border to top and bottom of quilt.

And, VOILA:

 

Your quilt top is finished!  YEAH!

Finishing The Quilt:

1.    Quilt as desired and bind:

 

2.    Don't forget to make your quilt label:

 

3.    And attach it to the back:

 

Hopefully this quilt will warm little Miss Emma's heart!

 

If you make one of these for a "Wee One" in your life, please send pictures so everyone can see!

I'm off to make "The World's Greatest Sandwich" for dinner!  Recipe and pix to follow later this week!

To download the Wee Ones Tutorial in PDF format, Click Here!

TTFN,

Kelly

Comments

[pammiejean]

kelly....thanks for great tutorial, love the quilt and can't wait to try it next time I need baby quilt...the directions seem clear and the photos are great,
thanks for sahring your time and talent...Pam

[Michelle in AR]

I agree...great tutorial! I can't wait to see Jonathan's quilt. I will be printing this out and putting it in my quilt binder. Thanks!

[CJ]

Lovely!! Very similar to the quilt I am working on, you can see it on my blog. I do have a question though - why would you cut the squares into triangles and then sew them together? There is that 'speed' method that I thought everyone but me knew about. I love the thing you did in the center to reduce the bulk. I will have to try that next time. Thanks for the tutorial!

[CJ]

I was genuinely wondering why one would make the triangles like that. I am new to triangles so very curious about the best method. Didn't mean to sound snarky there. :S

[Allie in MI]

Darling quilt and great tute! Thanks Kelly!

[Amy @ parkcitygirl]

Super tutorial!! Great use of the layer cake :)

[Amy]

Thank you so much for this amazing tutorial! It really helped to guide me through making my first ever quilt, and made the whole process very enjoyable. Thank you Kelly, you are very talented. I hope you don't mind but I included a link to this tutorial on my blog (gizmoandstitch.wordpress.com) as well as piccies of my attempt at making it. Have a lovely day, happy stitching!

[Ann Payne]

What an encouragement you are!! The quilt is luscious, and the tip about reducing the bulk where the seams meet is inspired -I really need that info right now!

Thank you for sharing!

[בניית אתרי אינטרנט]

Thanks for this wonderful quilt tutorial! It is really helped guide me in making my first quilt, and made the whole process very enjoyable.

[Cheryl]

The PDF File doesn't seem to be working correctly.

[Janice schaub]

Wonderful work. I have so much trouble getting my points to come together. I do 1/4 seams yours look bigger? (sorry have not read it yet) Was so excited that it was so perfect I just had to say something
Janice