Snug as a Bug Baby Quilt

Hello, it’s me… Melissa Corry. I am so excited about this adorable baby quilt tutorial. This easy quilt goes together super fast and throws a little wonky in with the stacked coins concept. The applique is the perfect finish to just cute it up.

Do you have a little bug in your life that needs the Snug as a Bug Quilt? If so, just click on over to Burgundy Buttons where Leah has created an exclusive Snug as a Bug Quilt Kit at a great discounted price! Hurry, supplies are limited.

And of course, if you have any questions you can reach me at happyquiltingmelissa (at) gmail (dot) com. And feel free to stop by my stomping grounds www.happyquiltingmelissa.blogspot.com to see what I am up to. I love visitors. Happy Quilting!!!

QUILT TOP

2 Oops-a-Daisy Charm Packs by Keiki

1 1/4 Yards Bella Solid White

Heat N Bond cut into 5″ squares.

BINDING

1/2 Yard of your choice of a Coordinating Binding Print – I used 32485-11

BACKING

1 1/4 Yard of your choice of Coordinating Backing Print -I used 32480-12

STEP 1 – CUTTING

We will get started with cutting the sashing needed from our white yardage. Layout your white yardage along your mat, aligning the folded edge along the 0 Horizontal line of your mat. Align your ruler along the last line of your mat and trim a straight edge. Measure in 5″, align your ruler along the mark on the top and bottom of your mat and cut. Without moving your fabric, slide your ruler over another 5″ and cut and continue repeating until you have four 5″ strips. Set your remaining yardage aside. Trim the selvage edge off of the top of the strips.

Layout the remaining yardage the same as before (aligning your last cut edge along the straight edge of your mat). Using the same method, cut 5 strips that are 1 1/2″ wide. Set your remaining yardage aside and don’t move your fabric strips. Now we are going to subcut those 5 strips horizontally. Align your ruler along the horizontal mat line at 16 1/2 inches. If you don’t have a 16 1/2″ line on your mat, line your 1/2 mark on your ruler with the 16″ line on your mat. This should make your ruler edge now at 16 1/2″. Cut across all 5 strips. When unfolded you will have five 33″ x 1 1/2″ strips. Now slide your ruler up the 21 1/2″ line and align as directed before and cut. This will give you an additional ten 5″x1 1/2″ strips.

Lastly, we need to cut a whole stack of 1 1/2″ x 5″ strips. So for the last time, align your remaining white yardage along the side of your mat. The amount of sashing will vary depending on the desired “wonkiness” but I found about 9 strips to be just right. Cut 9 more 1 1/2″ strips and set the remaining yardage aside for scrap. Now we need to subcut those 9 strips into 5″ pieces. The easiest way to do this is to cut along the horizontal 21″ line. This will give you a starting point and trim the selvage edge. Now measure down 5″ to the 16″ horizontal line, align your ruler and cut. Continue this process cutting every 5″ down to the 1″ line. You should now have an additional 64 1 1/2″ x 5″ strips.

Now that the sashing is done, we can move onto cutting up your charm pack. Once again, the exact amount of pieces needed will vary depending on your wonkiness but I found 44 charms to be just about right. I started by removing the doubles in my 2 charm packs and pulling aside any prints in particular that I wanted to use for applique. Then I selected 37 random charms.

Now cutting the charms is the fun part. There is no set measurement. You can make it as wonky as you like. I used measurements varying from 1 1/2″ down to 3 1/2″ down and everything in between. I didn’t want to go smaller than the sashing so that is why I stuck to those measurements but you can do what you like. So just pick a size for that particular charm pack, measure down (or up, it really doesn’t matter) that said measurement and cut. Switch it up within your charms so that you end up with a stack of completely different sized charms. (*NOTE* I found while sewing that some of my charms ended up just being a stem or something that I didn’t necessarily like the look of… in those cases I would set that aside and just cut a new charm to replace it 🙂

And that is the entire cutting. To review, you should have four 5″ x WOF Strips, five 1 1/2″ x 33″ strips, 74ish 1 1/2″ x 5″ strips, and 74ish 1 1/2″ to 3 1/2″ x 5″ charms. Are you there? Great, lets move on 🙂

STEP 2 – MAKING THE ROWS

Now that everything is cut, you are ready to start sewing. Grab a cut charm piece and a white 1 1/2″ x 5″ sashing piece. Align them right sides together along the top or bottom (either way works) . You will want to watch here that if you have a directional print you are aligning them all the same direction. So always add sashing on either the top or bottom 🙂 Sew a 1/4″ seam along your aligned edge.

Just keep aligning your pieces and chain stitching them. Meaning, don’t cut your threads between each pieced set, just keep feeding them through your machine until you have sewn all 74ish sets together.

Now you have a large pile of pieced sets. Go ahead now and clip your threads between each pieced set. You can press them now but it isn’t necessary. I just finger press for a while 🙂

Now you are ready to start sewing your rows together. You will be repeating the following process 6 times to make 6 rows. (Or if you are confident, you can chain stitch 6 sets to make all 6 rows as once 🙂 Grab 2 pieced sets. (try not to worry to much about what you grab, just keep it random 🙂 Align them as follows so that the white sashing is next to a charm print. This is where I do a little finger pressing to make it easier to work with my pieces.

Lay the top pieced set onto the bottom pieced set with right sides together and then sew a 1/4″ seam along the edge.

Finger press your seam open. It should look like the bottom. Now grab another pieced set, you are going to add this the same was as before.

Lay your pieced set onto your now sewn together pieced sets with right sides together. Sew a 1/4″ seam along the edge. Now repeat, repeat, repeat 🙂

Continue adding pieced sets until your strip measures more than 33″ when laid out. Make sure to pull it tight when you measure since you haven’t been pressing.

When you reach more than 33″ you are ready to press 🙂 I found it easiest to press my white edges out 🙂 Press as you are most comfortable 🙂

Now, just one more trim. Align the edge of your strip along the 0 vertical line of your mat. Now you are going to trim your strip down to 32″. Make sure when trimming this that you are trimming through a charm block. You want to have a charm strip, and not a sashing strip, at the top and bottom of your strip. If you are going to be cutting through a sashing, trim the top a bit to adjust. (If you didn’t chain stitch, repeat the process 5 more times so you have 6 rows total).

STEP 3 – SEWING THE ROWS TOGETHER

Grab your 6 pieced rows and your five 33″ sashings and lay them out as follows. Play around with your row alignment until you have a look that is pleasing to the eye.

We will start with sewing the sashings onto the pieced rows. Lay your 5 sashings onto the 5 rows to the left of the sashings. No need to pin, you can just align as you go. Sew a 1/4″ seam down the aligned sides, trim the excess sashing and press.

Now that your sashings are attached you are ready to start sewing your rows together (this is just like piecing the rows but on a much larger scale). Lay your first row onto your second row aligning the edge. This time you will want to pin to make sure your tops and bottoms are aligned properly. Sew a 1/4 seam along your pinned edge (and remember to remove pins as you sew. Press your seam.

Lay your third row onto your new sewn together first and second row. Pin to align the edges, sew a 1/4″ seam along the pinned edge and press. Continue this process until you have sewn all of your rows together 🙂

STEP 4 – ADDING BORDERS

You will start with the top and bottom border. As these are WOF they will be a little long but no worries.

Lay your top and borders onto the top and bottom of your quilt top and align the edges. Once again, no need to pin, just align as you sew. Sew a 1/4″ seam along the edge.

Now, using your quilt as a guide, trim the excess sashing. (Make sure your quilt is completely flat when doing this so you get a nice straight edge). Press your seams.

Add the side borders. You will use the same method that you used to add the top and bottom border.

And your piecing is complete!! Isn’t it just adorable? Now onto making it super cute with some applique 🙂 (Note . . . If you are not a fan of applique you can skip the next step and finish your quilt top like this 🙂

STEP 5 – ADDING APPLIQUE

Grab the charms that you set aside earlier for applique. Using the manufacture’s directions, iron a 5″ square of Heat N Bond to the wrong side of your charm square. Now using the templates from the “Printer Friendly Version” of this tutorial, trace the desired applique onto the paper side of the Heat n Bond. (Make sure to do the letters backwards, as you can see, I forgot that when I took this picture 🙂 Cut out the traced applique. Repeat this process until you have cut out all of your applique pieces.

Play with the layout of your applique until you get a design you like. This is my layout. Once you have a layout you like, it is best to take a picture to refer to as you will be moving your quilt around to iron it and so will have to replace your applique.

I like to do one set of applique at a time. This just keeps it from starting to come off when you are moving the fabric around so much in your machine while stitching it 🙂 I started with the letters. I use my ruler as a guide to make sure that I am aligning them straight 🙂 Once again, using the manufacturer’s directions, press your applique to your quilt top fusing it to the top.

Stitch around your applique to secure it. I choose to use brown thread for my applique and did a blanket stitch around the entire applique.

In the center details, I did a very close zig-zag stitch to give the details dimension.

Repeat this process until you have secured all of your applique 🙂 And your quilt top is done!!

STEP 6 – FINISHING YOUR QUILT

Now to finish, you just quilt and bind. I know, I make it sound so easy. But it is a great size to start on if you are doing free motion quilting for the first time. I choose to quilt mine in an all over free motion daisy and loops design. There are tons and tons of tutorials out there on free motion quilting. Just Google it and practice 🙂 .

Cut your binding fabric into five 2 1/2″ strips to make your binding roll. If you have never done a binding before there is a great tutorial here on how to bind {modabakeshop.com/2010/08/binding-with-jelly-roll.html}

And you are done! I would love it if you went over to my Happy Quilting Tutorial’s Flickr page to upload your quilt. I just can’t wait to see all of these adorable quilts and would love to feature your project on my blog some time 🙂

One super adorable 41 x 41 baby quilt ready to be loved by a little one in your life 🙂

Thank you to my adorable niece for being such a perfect little model and to her mom for helping me during the pictures 🙂

Melissa Corry
{happyquiltingmelissa.blogspot.com}

His & Hers Personalized Baby Quilts

Jul9

I’m a mom of twins, a boy and a girl. A friend of mine just had twins herself and I decided it might be fun to find a way to use the same fabric line to make a boy and a girl version quilt. I got the idea for this quilt from a pillow I made for Moda Bake Shop last year. You can see it here, it would be fun to make one to match the quilt using your scraps.

Stop by my blog and say hi!! Or visit my shop fourteen may for more sewing patterns!

1 Layer Cake: (you can use 1 layer cake for both quilts) I used Tweet Tweet by Keiki
1 yard white fabric per quilt for the center
1 yard fabric per quilt for backing
1/2 yard fabric per quilt for binding
Batting
Heat N Bond Lite

Buttons, colored thread to embellish applique
Smiley Monster Font (can be downloaded free)

First you will want to sort and pick your fabrics. Take your layer cake and divide it into a “boy” and a “girl” pile.

Next you want to decide which layer cake squares you want to use for the block border. You will also want to set aside the layer cake squares you want to use for the applique names & shapes. If you want to have the tree applique (like on the boy quilt) you may need more than one layer cake piece to get enough trees to cut out.

Cut the layer cake squares you want to use for the border in half so that they are 5″ x 10″. You will need a total of (14) 5″ x 10″ blocks for each quilt. I used some fabrics twice, but you will have plenty of layer cake pieces if you do not want to repeat any fabrics.

Sew (4) 5″ x 10″ pieces together along the short sides. Press & set aside. Repeat.

Sew (3) 5″ x 10″ pieces together along the short sides. Press & set aside. Repeat.

Cut your white fabric to 29 3/4″ x 29 1/2″

Sew one of the 3 block strips to the 29 1/2″ side of the white fabric. Repeat by sewing the other 3 block strip to the other side.

Press.

Sew the 4 block strips to the other 2 sides of the white block. Press. Trim off excess if necessary.

Quilt as desired. I quilted mine with a walking foot in straight lines approximately 2″ apart.

Using a word processing program and the font Smiley Monster, print your name approx 4″ tall. You may need to make it slightly smaller if you are printing a large name.

Trace the letters backwards onto the slick side of a piece of Heat n Bond Lite. Cut out roughly and iron onto wrong side of fabric. Cut out. You can see photos of my applique method here.

Apply to lower right hand corner of the quilted top approx. 2″ from the bottom border.

I used the bird in the fabric as a guide for my bird appliqué. I just scanned the fabric and printed the bird enlarged so that it is about 4″ tall. I then pieced it using scraps from my layer cake.

Stitch around the letters and pieces of the bird. Using brown thread in your machine stitch in legs for the bird. Sew a button for its eye.

For the boys quilt, I cut out 5 trees from the layer cake pieces. I applied Heat n Bond Lite to the back and ironed them onto the quilt top. I then stitched around the edges, using brown thread for the tree trunks.

After you have finished the applique, bind the quilt as desired.

Finished size is approx: 30″x30″

Two or three personalized baby quilts from one layer cake.

All Stars Quilt

Jun7

Hi, it’s Crystal over at Hendrixville.blogspot.com. I am pleased to give you my second Moda Bake Shop Project! I don’t know about you, but I have been in a big star phase and have been making them all over the place! So this quilt came together very easily!

2 Tweet Tweet by Keiki layer cakes*

2 2/8 yards of bella solid white

1 /2 yard pink color for the 1st border (sku #32317 13)

1 1/4 yard green color for the 2nd border (sku #32315 16)

5 1/2 yards brown color for the backing (sku #32311 17)

3/4 yards binding, any color

*You will have extra left over from your second layer cake and if you don’t want too many extras, a layer cake and a charm pack will work.

Cut your fabric into the following:

(192) 2 1/2 ” squares

(48) 3 1/2″ squares

(24) 6 1/2″ squares

(12) 6 1/2″ squares

(48) 3 1/2″ x 6 1/2″ rectangles

(216) 2 1/2″ squares

(96) 3 1/2″ squares

For this quilt, there are two different 12 1/2″ blocks. Lets begin with the small stars block.

The little star will become a wonky star. If you like a non-wonky star, feel free to line up the fabric and sew a more even line. I found for the wonky star, different size points make it more interesting, so for a little point, have a little bit of white showing and so forth.

Since this is wonky, only sew down the corner. You can align and sew your fabric like either photo above. Try both and get a feel for your preference. While sewing, chain stitch so you don’t waste thread (it’s also a lot faster).

Open up and press.

Turn block over and trim to the white square.

Open back up so you can see your stitching.

Cut 1/4″ away from stitch line.

Open up and you have one point done. Now repeat for the second point. (See where the chain stitch will come in handy?)

When making your points, make sure you pull out 24 colored squares and 96 white squares. You will use these to complete your little square block. I like to lay out my block like this so I can make my fabric line up the best.

After you sew press to one side, this will make sewing the different rows together easier.

There you go, you should have a total of 24 little square blocks.

You will now make 12 of these blocks. Once again, lay them out to align fabric. I try not to get too many blues, browns or pinks together (you give it more of a variety look by doing this).

Make sure you press once you sew two of the blocks together. This will also help align your seams nicely.

This will now yield 12 little wonky star blocks.

With your 3 1/2″ squares, make a diagonal line on each block. You can skip this step if you just want to eye ball it, but to be safe I took the time to draw the lines.

After drawing the lines, add one block to each of your 3 1/2″ x 6 1/2″ pieces and pin. Make sure that the diagonal line is going from the middle of the block and out. I decided to make this more of a traditional Maverick star, but feel free to make it wonky like your little stars.

Sew directly on the line. I also with this did a chain stitch with them to make the process faster.

Once one side is all sewn, trim 1 /4″ away from stitch line.

Press open. This is a VERY important step. If you don’t do this, your points will not open up after you add your second square.

When they are all pressed open, pin the second square on, once again make sure the diagonal line goes from the middle and out.

Trim again 1/4″ away from stitch line.

Press open.

Now take your 6 1/2″ squares and your 3 1/2″ squares and align them accordingly.

When your rows are sewed together make sure to press to one side to help the seams align.

You will need 12 big star blocks.

(At this point because my seams were not 100% perfect I had to trim my blocks down from 12″ to 11 1/2″. Even though your quilt will be slightly smaller, this is a VERY good idea. Not only will piecing your top together be easier, it will also make your quilt lay flatter once you have finished quilting it).

Go ahead and lay out your blocks in a design that you like.

Sew and press all of your seams (to the side or open).

Now take your pink fabric and cut it into 2 1/2″ strips. Sew two of your strips together to make one side. You will need (8) 2 1/2″ x 44″ strips for the borders.