Learn to Sew a Basic Baby Block Quilt

In my latest “On the Sewing Table” video I mentioned that this summer I wanted to make a baby quilt for my Nephew Grant, who was born back in June. 

As this was the first official quilt I worked on, I thought I’d share with you how I made this Basic Baby Block Quilt in a Learn to Sew video.

Basic Baby Block Quilt

Being my first quilt and since it was, for a baby, I decided to go with the measurements for a crib quilt, which in my case was 30 inches by 40 inches. 

My sister @Fatebee gave me some space themed fabric along with some orange abstract fabric, that she had leftover from decorating Grant’s nursery. 

I had about 1/2 yard of each fabric, which was the perfect amount. 

To interest and texture, I found about 1/2 yard of some neon green fleece that I had. I thought the green, orange and space fabrics would look great together. 

Block Quilt

Before starting this baby block quilt, I  read some tutorials on block quilts and even watched a really good block quilt tutorial video by Professor Pincushion on Youtube. 

In the end, I decided to cut 5-inch by 5-inch squares of my block fabrics, sewing them in rows with a 1/2 inch seam allowance. 

I pressed the seam allowances open so that they lay flat on each side of the blocks. 

Next, I sewed each row together, again using a 1/2 inch seam allowance and then pressing the seam allowance open.

Backing the Quilt

For the back of the quilt, I used some blue navy woolen blend fabric, I had in my stash. I cut the fleece a little larger than 30 inches by 40 inches so that I could trim to my quilt block.

Since the navy fabric was a thicker fabric I decided not to use quilt batting on the inside of my quilt.  

Next, I stacked the sewn quilt blocks on top of the navy back fabric. Using safety pins and starting from the center out I pinned each square to through the back fabric to ensure that it wouldn’t slip. 

Finally, I sewed in the ditch along each quilt square to secure it to the batting and the quilt back. 

Once the layers were sewn together I trimmed the quilt to fit the top quilt block. 

Finishing it Out

To finish the quilt I used some decorative quilt binding all away around the edge of the quilt. 

Attaching the quilt binding is very similar to how you would attach a bias tape binding to finish a hem for example. 

I did have to do a lot of hand sewing to get the quilt binding secure on the back. This took a tedious 4 hours. 

Grant’s Out of this World Quilt

Grant’s out of this world quilt was made just in time for his delivery at the end of June. 

I’m really happy with how this baby block quilt turned out, as it is my first official quilt. Plus, the colors and fabrics really add a pop of color to his room. 

My hope is that little Grant will enjoy this quilt for a very long time to come 🙂