Modern Baby Lattice Quilt Tutorial

This modern lattice baby quilt turned out super cute, and has been delivered to its forever home where it will get lots of love, but I have to admit that it is NOT a good idea to start making a quilt, take a ton of photos for a tutorial, break the camera mid-project and set the whole thing aside until a new camera is available.

Actually, none of that is the problem.  The problem was not writing up the first part of the tutorial immediately after taking those first few photos.  Because now it’s several months later, and this tutorial is a headache (for me the writer, not for you the reader) because I no longer remember what I was envisioning as a teaching point as I took some of these photos.  This lattice quilt tutorial could have been finished much more quickly if I’d written parts of it immediately.

I mean, some of them are crystal clear.  Sew this piece to that piece, make sure to match up the seams by pinning.  That sort of advice is golden.  But a few of these pictures I had to really look at, and think back to making the quilt to figure out what they were meant to convey.

My memory and attention span problems aside, continue reading to learn how to make a modern baby lattice quilt…

Modern Baby Lattice Quilt Tutorial

A lattice quilt can be made with any size of square, and any width of sashing.  Make your pieces as large or as small as you like.  This version is made from 5” squares.  I know a lot of quilters like precut fabric, and charm packs are 5” squares.  Layer cakes are 10” squares, which can easily be cut down the middle both directions to make 5” squares.  Or, you can do like I did and cut 5” squares from your stash, either from yardage or from fat quarters.

My quilt finishes at 39” by 46” and has no corner pieces just for funsies.  Again, make it as big or as small as you like.  If you want to fill in the corners with more sashing fabric, go for it.  I’ll include those directions once we get to that step.

Supplies

(50) 5” Squares  These can come from pre-cuts, or from cutting your stash which is what I did.  I used a bazillion shades/prints of blue, since my quilt is for a friend’s baby boy, but you can definitely do a less-chromatic option.  I skipped navy, since I knew it wouldn’t pop as much against the dark sashing.

1¼ Yard of Sashing Fabric.  White polka dots on black = lots of fun and very trendy.  Plus, it goes well with all of the blues!

Cut your black into:

2 strips that are 7” wide by WOF.  Sub cut 9 squares 7” (If you want sashing triangles in the corners as well, cut 2 more 7” squares.  Depending on the WOF, you may need to cut one additional 7” strip for this.)

14 strips that are 1½” wide by WOF.  Sub cut 8 strips into 42 pieces 1½” by 5”.  Leave the remainder of the strips for later.

Making the Blocks

Using a ¼” seam allowance, sew a 1½” by 5” sashing piece to a blue square.  Repeat with all 42 1½” by 5” sashing pieces.    File away for future use, we’re going to call these Unit 1 when it’s time to lay out the whole quilt top.

Not all of your blue squares will have a sashing piece attached, but that’s okay.

Sew 24 of your block + sashing pieces into 12 pairs.  These pieces have two blue squares and two pieces of sashing.  These will be called Unit 2.

Sew a blue square to the sashing side of 2 of the pairs made in the last step.  These pieces have three blue squares and two pieces of sashing.  These will be called Unit 3.

Sew a second blue square to the other side of a Unit 1, on the sashing side.  These pieces have two blue squares and one piece of sashing and will be called Unit 4.  You need 6 of these.

Block Layout

Making a Modern Lattice Baby Quilt is easier if the pieces are laid out onto a design wall (or design floor) at this stage, before any more sewing happens.

Start with a Unit 3.  To the upper left of this, place Unit 1 with the sashing towards the three blue squares.

The next row (is row even the right word, when it’s a diagonal row?) is made up of 5 blue squares.  This can be made with a Unit 1 + Unit 2 + Unit 4.  You can sew all of these units together into the row now, or keep the pieces separate for the time being in case you want to rearrange your prints/colors as you continue to lay out the quilt top.

Next, a row with 7 blue squares.  It is made from Unit 1 + Unit 2 + Unit 2 + Unit 4. 

And then a row with 9 blue squares made from Unit 1 + Unit 2 + Unit 2 + Unit 2 + Unit 4.

As long as you have a blue square on each end of your rows, and all blue squares within the row are separated by sashing, it doesn’t really matter how you arrange your Units 1, 2 and 4.

Fill in the remaining half of the quilt top by working backwards- a row with 9 blue squares, then 7, 5, 3 and one.

So far, so good?  Good!

Sashing

Make sashing triangles by cutting 9 7” squares in half along the diagonal to create 18 triangles.

Now it’s time start adding the long, thin strips of sashing, and this is where the tutorial goes off the rails a little bit.  It all comes back to focus though, so definitely power through, and just remember to write you tutorials immediately after taking photos, not 4 months later!

Start by laying a strip of sashing in between each of your diagonal rows.  The first and last rows (the ones made up of just Unit 1) are already done!  The middle strip of sashing will need to be pieced from two strips of sashing (by sewing two strips on the short end), but as long as your fabric is at least 40” wide, that should be the only one you’ll have to piece.

Start from the outside and work towards the middle.  For the rows in the upper left half of the quilt, sew each strip of sashing to the row above it, and trim the strip to be square with the edges of the row.  For the rows in the lower right half of the quilt, sew each strip of sashing to the row below it, and trim the strip to be square with the edges of the row.  Extra fabric is included in the supplies in case you need to piece more than just the middle strip of sashing.

This should be pretty easy for the outer rows, and only gets a little complicated for the middle two rows that are each made up of 9 blue squares and need to share a sashing strip between them.  Start with the row above, and a sashing strip.

Working on the left end of the strip, the end with the darker blue square, sew the sashing to the row, but stop mid-way through the second to last square.  Leave this seam partially sewn until a future step.

Sew a sashing triangle onto the end with the darker blue square.

This is what the whole thing looks like now, with a sashing triangle on one end, and an unfinished seam on the other end.  Don’t trim anything yet

Now it’s time to match up the other row with 9 blue squares to the sashing side of the first row with 9 blue squares.

Gettign the Sashing Strips to Line Up

Check to make sure that the shorter sashing pieces line up, by folding the fabric back to check.  Pin frequently!

Sew the entire length of this strip, from the end with the sashing triangle, all the way to the with the unfinished seam. 

Trim the sashing strip to be square with the blue square on the bottom. 

Add a sashing triangle to that end.

Now you can go back and finish that unfinished seam. 

Add a sashing triangle to the end of every row.  I forgot to take a photo of this step, but I recommend placing all of those triangles onto the design wall before sewing to the ends of the rows.  Maybe it’s just me, but I’m sure I would sew one (or more!) with the triangle angled the wrong way if I didn’t first place them on the design wall and get them turned the correct way.

Sew all the rows together! 

If you want to add 4 more sashing triangles for the corners, now is the time to do so.

The edges need to be trimmed, to cut off the excess sashing triangle edges and make the edges all nice and straight.  I chose to baste and quilt my quilt before trimming the edges.  It’s totally up to you which order you do those in.

When trimming, you want to be ¼” to the right of the outer corner of the squares. Repeat on all four sides.

Nice and even along the edges!

Now your quilt is done and ready for binding.

I even got to use my brand-new quilt tags for the very first time! I ordered these from Border City Quilts and I love them!