Quick Baby Quilt Tutorial

How quick is this quick baby quilt tutorial?

I made it in less than a weekend, and it was a busy weekend, so it probably could have been made in a day, if I’d chosen a less busy time.  Seriously, really, really quick baby quilt.

Now, this quilt is way outside of my normal color palette, but I really like it!  This quick baby quilt started out as a junior jelly roll, which is 20 2½” strips in dark blues, coral pink, an orange-y red and some gray.  It had stripes and dots and zig zags and bicycles! 

To make a quilt this size you’ll need 32 2½” strips, plus 5-6 for binding, which makes it a perfect jelly roll quilt.  I added strips of navy and white stripes and a few more grays, to round out the palette and mellow it out a bit. 

How To Make Quick Baby Quilt Blocks

Alright, so these are the fastest quilt blocks you are ever going to make.!

From the 32 2½”, make 16 pairs, and sew along the length of the strips, using a ¼” seam allowance.  Press towards the darker fabric in each pair.

Cut up to 9 blocks from each strip set, each measuring 4½” square.

And that’s it!  Your blocks are complete.  I told you this was a super quick baby quilt.  You need 143 blocks total.

How to Make a Quick Baby Quilt – Putting the Rows Together

Set aside 17 blocks, and sew the remaining 126 blocks into 63 pairs.  The block on the left of each pair should have vertical strips and the block on the right of each pair should have horizontal strips.

Aim for as much variety as possible.

Use 15 of the blocks set aside, to sew to 15 of the pairs, to make triples.  Note the orientation, the blocks on the outsides of the triple have vertical strips and the horizontal block is the one in the middle.

Now it’s time to connect the pairs to the triples, to create the rows.  These rows aren’t all equal in length, because they aren’t really rows.  This quilt doesn’t go together in either rows or columns, but rather in diagonals.  I’m going to call them rows, just for ease of language.

Remember, every single row is going to start and finish with vertical blocks.  You’ll need three rows of 15 blocks, and two each of 13, 11, 9, 7, 5 and 3 blocks.  You’ll also still have two single blocks.

Now it’s time to lay out the whole quilt, on your design wall, or design floor, or wherever/however you make room to lay out quilt tops. 

Start with one single block in the upper left corner, on an angle so that the two strips are aimed towards the upper left.  Next comes a row of three, then a row of five, then seven and so on, working up to the three rows of 15 and then back down to the last single block.

Sew the rows together so that the vertical and horizontal blocks alternate, and so that each smaller row is placed right in the middle of the next longest row.  Make sure to pin all seams and use a ¼” seam allowance when sewing the blocks together.

Then, sew the row pairs to other row pairs.  The image only shows six rows, but you’re going to do this with all 15 rows in the quilt.

Both the left and right halves of the quilt go together in this same way.

Here’s an image of how the three rows made of 15 blocks should go together.

And that’s it!  That’s the whole quilt.  I told you this would be a quick baby quilt!

Backing and Binding

I intended to bind this quilt in navy/white stripes, but didn’t have quite enough fabric.  So it’s a mix of horizontal stripes and diagonal stripes.

And of course, it’s got a soft flannel backing, because all baby quilts should be this soft!  As a fun surprise, this quilt didn’t have a designated recipient when I started it, so it’s listed in my Etsy shop for sale.

And, for one lucky ready who gets there first, this baby quilt is for sale in my Etsy shop, along with lots of other quilts in a variety of sizes and patterns.