I have a fun free baby quilt pattern for you today. And bonus – it’s also a fat quarter friendly baby quilt pattern. Yay!
Almost two months ago I was lucky enough to be asked by Sew Mama Sew if I’d like to contribute a project for Cloud 9 Fabrics’ soon-to-be-released fabric line, Wildwood.
I said yes please, emailed them an idea and was very excited when I found the project had been accepted to participate in the Wildwood Challenge.
The fabric arrived in August and it had the same beautiful, crisp hand I’ve come to expect from Cloud 9 fabrics. The colours are very on trend – love the navy and coral.
So, what did I make? A baby quilt of course! I wanted to keep it simple and show off every single print from the line. I also liked the idea of being able to use a fat quarter bundle.
Colour gradations make me very happy, and that’s what I’ve attempted here.
I quilted it with parallel diagonal lines, using my walking foot edge as a guide. Initially I was going to quilt the whole thing in a neutral beige colour, but when I found I had spools of navy and coral that matched exactly I thought I should incorporate these, too (which I did randomly).
I used a scrappy binding, taking the time to match the binding fabric to the fabric at the quilt’s edge (not exactly as I didn’t want overlapping seams, but close enough). I really like the effect.
If you would like to make a Wildwood crib quilt (50″ x 60″) of your own, then this is how to do it:
Step 1: Buy a fat quarter of each of the 12 fabrics in the line.
Step 2: Cut 10 x 5.5″ squares from each fat quarter, like this:
(Reserve the rectangular off cut – you can cut your scrappy binding strips from it; 3 strips of 2.25″ x 11″.)
UPDATE TO CUTTING INSTRUCTIONS: A couple of people have noted that their FQs don’t quite make the 22″ x 18″ size needed for the above cutting method. Please measure your FQs before cutting and if they come up short you have two choices:
a. Reduce all the squares to 5.25″ – then they will fit into the fabric you have available. (This will reduce the final size of the quilt to 47.5″ x 57″ which is still a generous baby quilt size).
b. Cut 3 x 5.5″ squares from each row (not 4 as shown above) and then piece your final square from what you have left over. I know purists will shudder at this – but you’re already chopping fabric apart just to sew it straight back together, so it’s not a stretch to piece the 10th square!
UPDATE OVER AND OUT
Step 3: Take your 120 x 5.5″ squares and arrange them in this order:
1.Climbing Vine Khaki 2.Pretty Posies Coral 3.Forest Floor Khaki
4.Full Bloom Coral 5.Wildflower Crimson 6.Deco Petal Navy
7.Midnight Flora Navy 8.Climbing Vine Navy 9.Full Bloom Indigo
10.Forest Floor Ivory 11.Pretty Posies Turquoise 12.Deco Petal Turquoise
Where you have squares of the same fabric next to each other, turn one of them such that the pattern is not running the same direction across both squares:
Step 4: Sew your squares into rows, and then sew your rows together. Make a backing then baste, quilt, bind and enjoy!
Confession time: I didn’t use a fat quarter bundle. As often happens when I make plans, I wasn’t able to get a fat quarter cut of each fabric. I had to take a one-third yard cut instead (I know, terrible, right?). This gave me some left over fabric which I used to piece part of a backing:
The rest of the backing was pieced with Kona Raffia yardage.
I have no pattern to share for the backing. Frankly, it was a major pain in the posterior to piece and I won’t be doing it again. It took a lot longer than the quilt top to make and about half way through I cursed myself and wished I’d used a whole cloth instead! Oh well, this is how we learn, right?
The one thing I will say is that all those diagonal seam lines were handy for staying on track when I was quilting.
There you have it – a Wildwood Crib Quilt, fit for any young bub! I hope you enjoyed this free baby quilt pattern.
Thank you so much to Sew Mama Sew for the Challenge, Cloud 9 for the fabric and Elizabeth Olwen for designing such loveliness.
You can see what the other Wildwood Challengers get up to by checking out their links below:
Carolina Carero from Love, Lola
Elizabeth Singler from Mamma Can Do It
Jennifer Waaraniemi from lea & lars
Heidi Staples from Fabric Mutt
Ren Murphy from The Inspired Wren