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February 28, 2008
loop pieced baby quilt
Since Amy posted her baby present, here's the quilt I made for Becket, I mean the baby ;)
I know that yellow and gray is a kind of weird color scheme for a baby, but I think it works, particularly knowing the family. The cool yellow/white/gray geometric print is actually a huuuuuge curtain I found on sale at Anthropologie. That's the fabric for the back of the quilt too. I think I might make a dress out of the rest of it.
So I thought I'd share my instructions in case anyone else is interested, and to show off the clever trick I came up with to get this done in time for the shower (though, for all I know, I might well have just rederived some well known quilting method, but I *felt* clever anyway). As you're reading through it, you might think it sounds crazy because, get this, you sew seams and then rip them out later. Weird, I know, but it saves major time and makes all the seams come out much squarer. I call it loop piecing.
All seam allowances are ΒΌ inch.
- You'll need 9 coordinating fabrics that can alternate. Cut 5 inch wide strips from each, the width of the bolt (use 45 inch wide fabric, not 36).
- Decide what order you want the fabrics, and sew strips together along long sides, right sides together. Iron seams.
- Sew last strip to first strip, right sides together, to create a tube.
- Square it up so the seams all match and slice into 8 loops, each 5 in wide. You should have enough extra fabric that you can cut off the selvages for a clean edge on both ends.
- Using a seam ripper, open a different seam of each loop. Iron again.
- Arrange the strips so you get diagonals of each fabric.
- Pin adjacent strips, right sides together, to help make the corners match up. Sew. Iron again.
- Cut backing fabric and batting 1 in larger all around than quilt top. Layer.
- I tied this one with little embroidery thread x's at the junctions, but you can quilt it or tie it, whatever you want.
- Bind by your favorite method (mine is to just fold the binding over and zigzag to catch everything at once). I made my own binding for this since I couldn't find the exact color of gray to match. (FYI, I highly recommend the clover binding tools. I have a couple of generic ones in other sizes, but now that I know how much better the clover ones are, I am actually going to replace my nonclover ones. Really, it's like night and day.)
Posted under Projects with Instructions at February 28, 2008 12:50 AM
Comments
This is such a brilliant idea, I think I'm going to try it this weekend, I have 3 baby quilts I need to make for gifts :) Can you tell me what is the finished size of the quilt ?
Posted by: Tania Ho at February 28, 2008 04:58 AM
Yep, you re-discovered an existing method. :D I've made a baby quilt like this before, a few years ago.
It's really, really fast.
Posted by: Andrea at February 28, 2008 08:21 AM
Necessity is the mother of invention...love this!
Posted by: Eren at February 28, 2008 08:39 AM
brilliant.
Posted by: erin at February 28, 2008 08:48 AM
The squares end up 4.5 in each, so using 9x8 squares gives 41x36.5. You can change the size by making bigger strips/loops or more fabrics (requires wider bolts or lengthwise fabric cuts).
Posted by: Maitreya at February 28, 2008 12:30 PM
AWESOME!!! thanks for sharing! :)
Posted by: juju at February 28, 2008 05:54 PM
Yellow and gray are perfect for a baby! I like this quilt so much, and I will always say the it is a challenge to find good grays in the quilting world. Lovely.
Posted by: dorie at February 28, 2008 08:50 PM
Beautiful! Thanks so much for the clever instructions!
Posted by: Rae at February 29, 2008 09:31 AM
I love this color combination!
Posted by: Elizabeth at March 3, 2008 07:30 PM
I love the color scheme. Great job!
Posted by: elliebelle at March 7, 2008 11:49 AM
wow, i love this quilt. and thanks for the instructions! i'm not much of a seamstress, but i might try this for fun. i need something to take me out of my studio dungeon once in awhile!! :)
Posted by: lisa at March 8, 2008 10:03 AM
I love this. Thanks for sharing the instructions.
Posted by: Valerie at March 31, 2008 12:13 PM