I always have these wonderful ideas of things to make………and then just never find the time. I also think crazy things like on a monday decide I’d like to make a playmat for Wednesday when I’m seeing someone. That sort of thing. Finding time to get in the sewing room is pretty hard, at the moment it’s just to make orders, tell a little person to get out of there or have a tidy up. But a couple of hours (spread over 3 sessions, don’t worry I don’t get that much time to myself these days) in there on the weekend and I made little playmat/blanket for a little boy. And if you can sew a straight line then you can make this too. Oh yes you can. Don’t think that you can’t.
You will need : 20 x 10 inch squares of fabric (Moda do these in a layer cake), flannelette for the backing (I used some good quality Moda flannelette) and some 100% cotton quilt batting in the middle. You join up the squares using a generous seam (about 3/4-1 inch seam, don’t do a quarter inch) and just make sure you use the same seam throughout the whole playmat/blanket.
You firstly join the squares going down so you have 4 rows of fabric pieced together and then you join across by joining the first 2 rows together, then add the 3rd and then add the 4th. Give it a good press with the iron and I like my seams to one side, you might like them flat. Do what you prefer.
Measure up the backing and batting to be a bit bigger (a few inches) than your blanket top. Place the batting on the floor, then the backing flannelette right side up, then the quilt top right side down. Smooth out any lumps and bumps and pin together with pins or safety pins from the centre out in all directions smoothing out as you go.
Sew about 3/4 inch from the outside edge all the way around the quilt except for about 7 inches which is going to be the bit we’re going to turn out and pull our quilt through. Trim your corners, pull your quilt right side out through the gap you left. Close up the gap with a close to the edge stitch on your machine or just hand stitch it up. Give the blanket a little press with the iron
Sometimes I will top stitch all around the edge of the quilt (about 1/2 inch in) this one I didn’t as I decided just to do the A’s. It’s up to you. Now we’re going to use a fun stitch on your machine to join all the layers together randomly all over the playmat/blanket. I used the little boy’s initial all over. I had a moment of panic after a couple of squares when I realised I might be doing them upside down! Thankfully not. Check first. I do love fonts on sewing machines but I just don’t use them enough. After about 3 blocks I realised this could take a while so I did it in 2 sittings and I just love it. It really makes it special AND it’s a great reason to use the fonts on your machine.
And that’s one super cute and easy personalised baby playmat or blanket. Perfect if you don’t have time or don’t know how to quilt but want to make something special for a baby or little one.
The fabric range for this little project was Daysail by Bonnie & Camille for Moda, some Moda flannelette also from Bonnie & Camille on the back and some 100% cotton quilt batting. I find it best to buy Matilda’s Own quilt batting as it’s australian and better priced than the american equivalent at Spotlight. Starting out you might like to use a poly quilt batting but I always think start with something nice and it makes a beautiful 100% cotton quilt inside and out.
to make an even easier blanket you can just one piece of lovely fabric for the top instead of piecing squares together, just go here.
It’s a lovely quilt Corrie. Beautiful fabrics and I love how you used the font to join the layers. Thank you for the tip for buying Matilda’s Own quilt batting
This looks lovely & sounds like it wouldn’t be too complicated to put together.
This is probably a dumb question but why do you say to use a generous seam to sew the squares together, rather than a quarter inch seam?
A 1/4 inch seam could be easily ripped compared to a wider seam and since I haven’t quilted it all over through the layers and close together then there is more risk that the quilt can be ripped, a bigger seam allowance will help to prevent that:) That and I did a 1/4 inch seam and one square ripped apart at the seams so I learnt my lesson:)
That makes sense! – thanks for explaining.
Just gorgeous, I really love this.
Sometimes simple is best!!
Gorgeous quilts Corrie. I love fabric but am utterly hopeless at sewing. Tablecloths are about my limit. Full of admiration for you:)
These are amazing! Unfortunately I never seem to have the time to try things like this