Project by Rebecca Cole
How beautiful to snuggle up your little one in a cot quilt made from this beautiful fabric. The light tones and colour palette are so soothing and make for the perfect addition to any nursery. The simple quilt block that makes up this quilt design is suitable for all levels and really shows off the fabrics beautifully!
Time to Make:
6-7 hrs
Skill Level:
Beginner/Intermediate
You Will Need:
· Goodnight 1m pack
· Cot Quilt size batting
· Sewing machine
(optional sewing machine accessories/stitches that can help: ¼” foot, walking foot)
· Complimentary sewing thread
· Straight pins
· Tape measure
· Fabric scissors or rotary cutter
· Iron
· Safety pins
Method
1. To create your patchwork quilt top you will need to cut 24 x 4.5” squares, 18 x 2.5” squares from the grey stars and 17 from the aqua clouds, and 58 rectangles 2.5” x 4.5”. You will also need four 2.5” wide strips, two 26.5” long, and two 42.5” long.
2. Start putting the patchwork pieces together in strips. Start with this order: grey 2.5” square, white rectangle, aqua 2.5” square, white rectangle, grey 2.5” square, white rectangle, aqua 2.5” square, white rectangle, grey 2.5” square. Make sure any directional patterns in the fabric are going in the same direction.
3. For the second row assemble as follows: White rectangle (long edge), large 4.5” square, white rectangle (long edge), large 4.5” square, white rectangle (long edge), large 4.5” square, white rectangle (long edge), large 4.5” square, white rectangle (long edge).
4. When pressing the seams press them in the opposite directions. For example, press the 2.5” strip seams to the left and the 4.5” strip seams to the right.
5. Continue making up the strips and then you can start to join the strips together. Butt the alternating seams up together to get a nice accurate alignment of your seams.
6. Once you have attached all of your patchwork pieces and pressed all of the seams, now attach the two shorter 2.5” strips along the top and bottom short edges. Press the seams and repeat with the longer strips for the sides, taking them all the way to the edges of the shorter strips to create a frame around the whole patchwork topper. Press these seams also.
7. Lay your backing fabric down on your work surface right sides face down. Next lay your batting on top. Finally lay your patchwork down on top of this, face up so that you have created a batting sandwich with all wrong sides and raw seam edges inside. Take some large safety pins and, starting from the middle, pin all three layers together at regular intervals, smoothing the layers as you go. This will hold everything together while you start the quilting process.
8. Start stitching in the ditch (along the seam edges), down all of the long vertical seams, starting with the centre one and working your way out and then repeating on the other side. Repeat this process with the short horizontal seams. Remove the pins when you have finished. You may prefer to use a walking foot for this step.
9. Now we are going to bind the quilt. Cut 3” strips from your fabric and seam them together until you have a strip long enough to go all the way around the outside edge of your quilt, approximately 3.75m. Press the strip in half. Starting halfway down one of the sides, line the raw edges up with the raw edge of the quilt. Open out the strip fold and fold the corner down diagonally. Start to stitch along the edge until you have gone about ½” further down than the bottom of the diagonal fold. Lift the needle out of the machine and raise the presser foot so that you can remove the quilt from the machine. Fold the strip in half again and reinsert into the machine, starting the seam round about where you stopped. Continue all the way down to the first corner.
10. When you reach the corner, stop ¼” from the end and secure with a couple of back stitches. Cut the thread and lift the project out of the machine. Turn the quilt so that the edging you have just stitched is horizontally to the left of you. Lift the strip up away from you, at right angles to the line of stitching you have just sewn, creating a diagonal edge along the corner. Fold the strip back down towards you so that it is running along the next edge of the quilt. Place the quilt back under the machine and start sewing from the top edge along this new side, securing with a couple of back stitches to start. Repeat for the following 3 corners.
11. As you go around the edge of the quilt and finally arrive back at the point you started, cut any excess length from the binding strip and tuck the end inside the diagonal pleat/pocket you made at the beginning. You can now sew over this join to securely and neatly close the edges.
12. To finish off, turn the quilt over and fold the folded edge of the binding over the raw edges of the quilt. Seam in the ditch to close. When you get to the corners fold them over to create perfect mitred corners! If you feel more confident, you can do this step by hand to create an invisible stitch. Your quilt is now complete.
To see more from Rebecca, visit her on Instagram @becky_cole_sews
Made by Rebecca Cole for the Craft Cotton Company 2021