A first attempt at a patchwork quilt

Another month, another baby due. Some of our close friends are due to have a baby at the end of September; it’s their first so I needed something special as a gift. They don’t know if they’re having a boy or girl so I couldn’t decide on colours now so I decided to make something that would suit either.

I’d bought this fat quarter in our local market a few months ago and had used part of the yellow piece to line a cosmetic bag but I hadn’t been inspired to use the rest, but I thought this was a great opportunity. I’d been wanting to have a go at quilting for a while now and I’d been inspired by the Colorbrick Quilt Along on Stitched in Colour. So, having had a good read of the instructions I set to work.

You will need:

♦ 6 fat quarters of fabric,

♦ wadding, 29″ x 22″

♦ Cotton in similar colours

I cut out five 3″x3″ squares and ten 3″x 6″ rectangles in each of four colours, oh for a rotary cutter and quilters rule! The green and blue are for the ‘boy’ side and the pink and orange are for the ‘girl’ side.

I then laid out the bricks in the design I wanted.

Once I’d laid out all of the bricks I pinned each row in a pile working across in the same direction top to bottom as I piled them up. This made sure that I sewed them together in the correct order.

Placing the right sides together sew a 1/4″ seam across the short side of each brick. Sew each row of bricks together.

Pin the rows together, making sure that your brick pattern is correct and sew a 1/4″ seam.

When all the rows of bricks are sewn together cut out five 2″x 22″ strips in each of your edging colours. Cut one of the strips in half and sew each of these halves to one of the longer lengths. Pin these around the edges and sew with a 1/4″ seam. Repeat on using the ‘girl’ colours but this time make sure the step pattern goes the opposite way.

Place the right sides of the finished pieces together and pin around the edge. Sew a 1/4″ seam around the edge leaving a wide gap along the bottom edge. Turn the quilt the right way and place the wadding inside. Sew along the open edge and then sew along the lines shown in red to stop the wadding from moving around.