When You Wish…Baby Quilt Pattern

Today I have a fun FQ friendly baby quilt pattern for you.

I’ll show you what I made and then take you through the steps so you can sew your own version of this happy little quilted baby mat.

Free baby quilt pattern by Kirsty at Bonjour Quilts; made with Karen Lewis' Blueberry Park

If you’d prefer to have the pattern as a PDF you can purchase the full pattern in my shop (with baby, throw, queen and king sizes).

Let’s talk about this baby quilt!

Given the star motif I’m calling the pattern When You Wish… (thank you, Walt Disney).

Free baby quilt pattern by Kirsty at Bonjour Quilts; made with Karen Lewis' Blueberry Park

I don’t often buy fat quarter bundles – I’m a half yard stasher (sometimes a full yard stasher). But when I was offered the chance to sew with a fat quarter bundle of Karen Lewis’ Blueberry Park for Robert Kaufman, I jumped at the chance.

Free baby quilt pattern made with Karen Lewis Blueberry Park

The colours are beautiful and saturated and generally have small scale prints, making them oh-so-useful and stash-worthy. (ETA: The Karen Lewis bundle is hard to find now – this fat quarter solids bundle would also work well*)

This pattern is perfect for a quilting beginner, made with squares and half square triangles (HSTs).

Free baby quilt pattern by Kirsty at Bonjour Quilts; made with Karen Lewis' Blueberry Park

I divided the colours of Blueberry Park into warm and cool palettes and assigned them to each of the four quadrants.

Free baby quilt pattern by Kirsty at Bonjour Quilts; made with Karen Lewis' Blueberry Park

Quilts with legs: my new favourite.

When You Wish… measures 36½” x 36½”. I love this width for a baby quilt as it can be backed with a single stretch of yardage. No pieced backing, yay!

The quilting

I had fun quilting this one – the warm quadrants were quilted with tangerine thread, the cool quadrants with aqua.

Free baby quilt pattern by Kirsty at Bonjour Quilts; made with Karen Lewis' Blueberry Park

I used the patchwork seams and the edge of my walking foot – no guide lines were drawn.

Free baby quilt pattern by Kirsty at Bonjour Quilts; made with Karen Lewis' Blueberry Park

When my needle is in the centre position it measures a half inch from the edge of my walking foot. When I was close to my pivot point I used a small ruler to check for the spot where I was a half inch from the next patchwork line. I would sew up to that spot and then pivot.

Sometimes I was a little over or under (which happens when your stitch length is long, as it is when you quilt); I would just adjust the next line to account for that discrepancy. It was all very much by eye and by feel – nothing stressful about it at all.

Free baby quilt pattern by Kirsty at Bonjour Quilts; made with Karen Lewis' Blueberry Park

Above you can see how I quilted each quadrant. These were the first lines and then I filled each portion in with lines that echoed them.

Backing and Binding

I backed When You Wish… with some leftover Elizabeth Hartman wideback (in Ultra Marine).

Free baby quilt pattern by Kirsty at Bonjour Quilts; made with Karen Lewis' Blueberry Park

To bind this quilt I used some of the purple FQs from the Blueberry Park bundle:

Free baby quilt pattern by Kirsty at Bonjour Quilts; made with Karen Lewis' Blueberry Park

I decided to machine bind this one and did so with a zig-zag stitch (tutorial on this here) in an aubergine thread:

Free baby quilt pattern by Kirsty at Bonjour Quilts; made with Karen Lewis' Blueberry Park

I love how quick, easy and forgiving this method of binding is. And it’s so robust for a baby mat which will receive copious amounts of poo, spew and washings.

My only complaint is that it did leave a slight wavy edge on the quilt:

Free baby quilt pattern by Kirsty at Bonjour Quilts; made with Karen Lewis' Blueberry Park

But I suspect that will wash out once it has it’s first bath. Regardless, it’s not enough of a worry to stop me from using this method again. Sometimes, you’ve just gotta get her done.

When You Wish…baby quilt pattern

Ready to sew your own version of this baby quilt pattern? Let’s do it!

General Instructions

Read all instructions before cutting and sewing.
Finished quilt measures 36½” square
All seams are ¼”
WOF = width of fabric = 42″ for yardage
FQ = fat quarter = 18″ x 21″
HST = half square triangle
RST = right sides together

Fabric Requirements

Quilt top:
14 FQs:
1 Yellow
1 Grass Green
2 Orange
2 Jade Green
2 Red
2 Dark Blue
2 Light Purple
2 Dark Purple

Binding:
FQ Purple (+ Light and Dark Purple remnants from quilt top).
OR
½ yd fabric

Batting:
40½” x 40½” square

Backing:
1¼ yd fabric

Cutting Instructions

Yellow FQ:
Cut 1 strip 5½” x 21″, then subcut 2 squares 5½” x 5½”.
Cut 1 strip 5″ x 21″, then subcut 2 squares 5″ x 5″.

Grass Green FQ:
Same as Yellow FQ.

From each Orange and Jade Green FQ:
Cut 1 strip 5½” x 21″, then subcut 3 squares 5½” x 5½”.
Cut 1 strip 5″ x 21″, then subcut 1 square 5″ x 5″.

From each Red and Dark Blue FQ:
Cut 2 strips 5½” x 21″, then subcut 5 squares 5½” x 5½” and 1 square 5″ x 5″.

From each Light Purple and Dark Purple FQ:
Cut 1 strip 5½” x 21″, then subcut 3 squares 5½” x 5½”.
Cut 1 strip 5″ x 21″, then subcut 1 square 5″ x 5″.

Binding:
FQ Purple and Light and Dark Purple remnants: Cut 9 strips 2¼” x 21″
OR
½ yd fabric: Cut 5 strips 2¼” x WOF

Quilt Top Quadrants

layout for star baby quilt pattern

The quilt top is divided into 4 quadrants, as shown above.

Quadrant 1 (Q1) and Quadrant 4 (Q4) will each use:

  • ½ Yellow FQ
  • 1 Orange FQ
  • 1 Red FQ
  • 1 Light Purple FQ

Quadrant 2 (Q2) and Quadrant 3 (Q3) will each use:

  • ½ Grass Green FQ
  • 1 Jade Green FQ
  • 1 Dark Blue FQ
  • 1 Dark Purple FQ

The Yellow FQ and Grass Green FQ are shared over two quadrants each.

The Orange, Red, Jade, Blue and Purple FQs need to be divided up, one FQ per quadrant, as seen above.

Audition your fabrics to find a combination you like for each quadrant and make note of your preferred colour combinations. Keep each quadrant’s fabric together so you don’t mix FQs across the quadrants (unless you’d prefer the scrappy look – you’re the boss!)

HST Construction Method

Take two 5½” squares and draw a diagonal on the back of one with a pencil. Place the squares RST and sew two seams, a quarter inch either side of the diagonal. Cut apart along diagonal line, open the units and press the seams to the side, as directed below. Trim the units to 5″ square

Sew Your HST Units

Repeat the HST Construction Method given above to make the following HST units; remember to keep fabrics in their allocated quadrant. Sew:

Q1 fabrics:

  • 1 Yellow and 1 Orange 5½” square to give 2 Yellow/Orange HST units, press toward Orange
  • 2 Orange and 2 Red 5½” squares to give 4 Orange/Red HST units, press toward Red
  • 3 Red and 3 Light Purple 5½” squares to give 6 Red/Light Purple HST units, press toward Light Purple

Q2 fabrics:

  • 1 Grass Green and 1 Jade Green 5½” square to give 2 Grass/Jade Green HST units, press toward Grass Green
  • 2 Jade Green and 2 Dark Blue 5½” squares to give 4 Jade Green/Dark Blue HST units, press toward Jade Green
  • 3 Dark Blue and 3 Dark Purple 5½” squares, to give 6 Dark Blue/Dark Purple HST units, press toward Blue

Q3 fabrics:

  • 1 Grass Green and 1 Jade Green 5½” square to give 2 Grass/Jade Green HST units, press toward Grass Green
  • 2 Jade Green and 2 Dark Blue 5½” squares to give 4 Jade Green/Dark Blue HST units, press toward Jade Green
  • 3 Dark Blue and 3 Dark Purple 5½” squares, to give 6 Dark Blue/Dark Purple HST units, press toward Blue

Q4 fabrics:

  • 1 Yellow and 1 Orange 5½” square to give 2 Yellow/Orange HST units, press toward Orange
  • 2 Orange and 2 Red 5½” squares to give 4 Orange/Red HST units, press toward Red
  • 3 Red and 3 Light Purple 5½” squares to give 6 Red/Light Purple HST units, press toward Light Purple

Trim all HST units to 5″ square.

Quilt Top Layout

Lay out the HSTs and the 5″ squares in the following format, mindful of each quadrant’s fabric combination.

Sew all the rows together, pressing the seams in each row in alternate directions so seams will nest.

Sew all the rows together to give the quilt top.

Back, baste and quilt as preferred. You can see my quilting choice back up at the start of this mammoth post!

Join the binding strips together end to end and use to bind the quilt.

And…you’re done!

Pat yourself on the back because you’ve just created your own beautiful version of the When You Wish…baby quilt pattern. Congratulations! Don’t forget to share your creation with us all – email me a picture or tag me on Facebook or Instagram.

If you know of a little star who needs a baby quilt, I hope you will make them a When You Wish… Baby Mat!

I have a PDF of this pattern in my pattern shop. It details how to make a baby, throw, queen and king size version of this quilt using yardage. In these versions the diagonally opposite quadrants are made with the same fabrics, which makes for a very quick project (just sew 2 of each quadrant).

The instructions for the FQ friendly version in this tutorial are also included in the paid pattern. You can find the When You Wish… quilt pattern here in my shop for US$12.
Happy sewing!

Kirsty x

*affiliate link

Free baby quilt pattern by Kirsty at Bonjour Quilts; made with Karen Lewis' Blueberry Park
Free baby quilt pattern by Kirsty at Bonjour Quilts; made with Karen Lewis' Blueberry Park

Share or Pin for later:

Leave a comment

You'll be the first to know ;)

Quilting tutorials. Behind-the-scenes fun. Great deals on patterns. Join 14,000+ subscribers & stay in touch.

"*" indicates required fields

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
Bonjour Quilts logo nameplate