Personalised newborn quilted blanket

(without the hassle of bias binding)

The fabrics for the quilt are all available from http://www.fabritastic.co.uk

Here is what you’ll need:

1. 2x Disney fabric – Winnie the pooh & friends – white characters – 100% cotton

2. 2x Disney fabric – Dumbo – script white – 100% cotton

3. 2x Dashwood studio fabric – twist – pewter – 100% cotton

4. Wadding (38”x 28”)

5. Plain white cotton fabric (32”x 22”)

6. Iron fusible web

7. Sewing machine, cutting mat, rotary cutter and ruler, frixon marker pen, and iron.

Preparing the fabric by washing, drying and pressing and then cut out the following:

1. Pewter: 6”x 42” (x3) and cut one of them again to make 6”x 21” (x2) plus a little extra for the applique hearts

2. Dumbo: 6”x3 2” (x1) and 3.5” x 32” (x2)

3. Winnie the pooh: 6” x 32” (x2)

Let’s begin…

Start by sewing all the white strips together in order, checking the fabric is the correct way round, a ¼ “seam allowance has already been added to the final cut pieces of fabric. Sew right sides together and press seams alternately. Trim sides using ruler, cutting mat and rotary cutter.

Next take the two shorter pieces of grey fabric and sew to each vertical edge of the quilt, making sure your seam is laying flat. Press seams.

Take the longer pieces of grey fabric and sew them to the top and bottom of the quilt, press quilt.

Take your heart template and draw round it onto the paper side of the fusible web (x2), cut out and iron onto the wrong side of the extra grey fabric. Cut out, peel off the fusible web backing paper and iron in place on the quilt. Use a blanket stitch to applique the hearts in place.

Quilt sandwich: create this by basting the wadding in-between the top and bottom layers of the quilt, I use 505 temporary basting glue to hold it in place whilst I quilt it.

Note: once the wadding is in place, trim it to fall 2” wider all the round of the white fabric, as we are using the grey as a trim to frame our quilt.

Quilt your design using free motion quilting, I used a frixon pen to draw round the heart template in random places, I then quilted these and removed the outline with the iron.

Personalize it…

I used the hearts that I’ve quilted to hold the information about the newborn, for example the name, or birth weight or the date the baby was born, or all of the previously mentioned. I used the frixon pen to write these details first, then using free motion quilting I sewed this information onto the quilt, in a pale, subtle thread.

When the quilting is finished, press the quilt, and fold over the grey fabric onto the back and pin the corners at right angles, then press your seam allowance and sew under using a slip stitch.

#quilting #applique #Babyquilt #patchwork #freemotion #handsewing #blanketstitch