Churn Dash Baby Quilt

It’s been a while since I made a baby quilt, and I have forgotten how fun it is. So quick to piece and quilt. And gifting it away is the icing on the cake. Handmade with care, a baby quilt becomes a cherished keepsake that holds not only physical warmth but also the warmth of your affection. 

Picking Fabrics

One of the best things about making a baby quilt is working with fun cute fabrics. I love working with bright colors and this is one of the projects that I get to do so. For this quilt, I am using a set of fat quarters that I received from Annie’s Fat Quarter Kit Club. It was such a delight opening the package to these beautiful bright fabrics and seeing the cute fruits with little faces on them!

Oh, and here’s the coolest part: You can snag your own fat quarter kit from Annie’s with a jaw-dropping 50% off your first shipment! Just follow this link and use the code SHARE50. Trust me, you’re gonna want in on this.

Selecting the Quilt Pattern

I knew I wanted a simple design and wanted to make sure the pieces are large enough to showcase the prints with the cute fruity faces. I have always loved the churn dash block, so I decided to make a 12.5″ churn dash block from the mix of fabrics. I only need to make 9 of the blocks to make it large enough for a baby quilt. I decided to use up leftover background fabric from this previous quilt here as I only needed less than a yard of the background to make all 9 blocks. 

The churn dash quilt is basically a nine patch units with half square triangle units for the four corners. Since I am making a 12″ blocks, these HSTs are 4.5″ square. I trim all my HSTs these days with my Stripology Mini Squared Ruler. It is just way easier to do it with this ruler. You can read more about how I use this ruler in this post HERE>

Once I made all the 9 blocks, I had to make the decision to put a sashing on or if I want any cornerstones. I hung all the blocks on my design wall (made of batting) and decided to make it simple and added sashings in between the blocks and the rows without any cornerstones. This cuts down the time piecing the rows together. 

The sashing was from another leftover background fabric from this quilt here. I am glad to be using these background fabrics in another project. 

Related post: Selecting Quilt Background Fabrics

Quilting Tools and Notions I used:

• My trusted workhorse, Janome Horizon Memory Craft QCP8200
• I used Superior Thread Snow for piecing this quilt
• My favourite Ergonomic Rotary Cutter – this have saved my wrist a lot!
• Large cutting Mat
• Stripology Mini Squared Ruler – my current favourite tool for trimming units
• Wool ironing Mat (I have no issues with the smell, but sometimes it can burn if the iron is way too hot and no steam)
• Oliso Pro Iron (I love this Iron, it lifts as you let go, saving the wrist from too much work and it gives a good heat and steam)
• Portable Design Board
• Quilter’s Clapper
• Wooden Seam Roller
• Diagonal Seam tape

Quilting

I decided to make a simple loopy pattern which was very enjoyable to free-motion quilt. I completed the free motion quilting in 2 sittings at the machine which was pushing it as it took about 1.5 hours in total to finish quilting. I do not recommend sitting to free motion quilt for more than 30 minutes at a time, but I really did want to finish the quilt fast.

It is a pretty small quilt, measuring 39″ square, and I like a smaller scale quilting on the quilt, but not too dense that the quilt becomes stiff. I think this loop design did the perfect job. 

Binding

When it comes to binding, I shop my stash to see if I have any matching colors. The backing was a solid yellow and it was also one of the candidates for the binding. I went on Instagram and Threads to ask for some opinions and was lucky to get a wonderful idea from @maraquiltdesigns who suggested making a flange binding from the yellow solid background and the navy!

I followed this tutorial to make the flange binding and it worked perfectly! I love how it pops from the back with the solid yellow backing and how the yellow pops on the front of the quilt. And the Diagonal Seam Tape really helped me with getting my quarter-inch seams along the lengthy strips. I love this tape!

I also include a label while I machine-stitch my binding. Always label your quilt! I really love labeling and really believed in the importance of labeling your handmade. You can read more about labeling quilts in this post HERE>

Overall, the quilt was surely fun to make and I love having surprise fat quarter bundles like this one that I receive from Annie’s Fat Quarter Kit Club. It may not be a bundle that I would bought myself but I do love that I can make use of it when I need it!

(PS: If you want to try Annie’s Fat Quarter Kit Club, use this link and code SHARE50 to get 50% off your first shipment. )

This quilt has already been gifted to my friend’s baby and I hope it will be loved and become a part of their memories. 

Linking this blogpost to a Friday Can I Get a Whoop,Whoop over at Sarah’s blog. She has some fun updates this week with her quilting projects too.