Making a Lap/Baby Quilt (tutorial + tips)

Making a quilt by yourself for the first time can feel overwhelming, especially if you've never done anything like it before. But the best place to start is with a simple pattern and a relatively small size. A quilt doesn't happen overnight (well, usually it doesn't...), and breaking the project down into manageable steps can make things a lot easier! Focusing on one step at a time will have you finishing your own quilt in no time.

This quilt uses the easy LeMoyne Star quilt block. Traditionally, each of the eight arms of the star would be one piece, but this version uses only half-square triangle quilt blocks, which are much easier to piece. That's because you'll be working with squares, not parallelograms. We're crafters over here, not geometrists! 

It does mean that there's a seam in each arm of the star, but in my opinion, the tradeoff is well worth the extra seams. And the seams really aren't that noticeable once all your blocks are assembled.

Quilting typically uses a quarter-inch seam allowance, which is what I used for this quilt. I received a magnetic seam guide for my sewing machine for Christmas, and it's been sew much easier to get nice, even quarter-inch seam allowances.

The measurements of my quilt were 44.5" x 34.5", including the border. Let's get started!

Pick Your Fabrics

The LeMoyne Star is a great way to use up extra scraps of fabric, especially since the stars don't have to match (unless you're a perfectionist about these sorts of things). Each block requires two contrasting fabrics and one background fabric. Make sure your background fabric is consistent across all 12 of the blocks, and choose whatever combination of contrasting fabrics you like. 

Choosing from the same color families can give you a more consistent look. Fat quarters are perfect for the contrasting fabric, and you could use plain or colored muslin for the background fabric. Before you cut anything, take some time to lay all the fabrics out to see if you like them together.

Cut Your Fabric

It's important to take your time with cutting so your pieces are even. You can use a rotary cutter and mat, or you can use a ruler to mark your cut lines on the wrong side of the fabric. I like using a quilting ruler to mark the fabric. You'll want to cut the following pieces for each LeMoyne Star block:

• Two 3" squares from your first contrasting fabric
• Two 3" squares from your second contrasting fabric
• Two 3" squares from your background fabric
• Four 2" squares from your background fabric

Piece Your Half-Square Triangle (HST) Blocks

Your HST blocks will be made from the 3" squares. Draw a diagonal line from corner to corner on one square's wrong side and match the squares, right sides together. Sew two lines, one on either side of the diagonal line, using a scant quarter-inch seam allowance.

Cut on the diagonal line you drew and press open. Use fabric scissors or a rotary cutter and mat to trim each square down to 2". This method makes two HST blocks. Use the picture as your guide when matching fabrics together to create your HST squares. You should end up with 12 HST squares for each LeMoyne Star block - four for the center, and eight for the perimeter of the star.

Assemble the Blocks

Arrange the 12 HST squares and four background fabric squares to create the LeyMoyne Star block (16 squares per block in total). I like to sew the squares together in strips, iron, then sew the strips together and iron again. The final size of each block should be 10.5".

Once you have 12 blocks, it's time to assemble them. Lay them out in four rows and three columns. Pieceing these together is the same process as piecing the squares to form the blocks - sew them together to create strips, then iron, then sew the strips together. The quilt top should be about 40.5" x 30.5". Give the quilt top another pressing when you've pieced all the blocks.

Add a Border

While you don't have to add a border, I like how a border sets off the fabrics in each quilt block. I did a 2.5" border on mine. 

Start by cutting two 2.5 x 40.5" strips for each of the long edges (or however long the quilt top is at this point!) Sew these on before you cut the two for the short end so you know how long to cut the last two. After all four border pieces are on, give your quilt top another press, and get ready to do the quilting!

Quilt the Top

Quilting keeps the layers of fabric and batting together, and it also adds stability to the quilt top. This prevents things from shifting around, even with repeated washings and use.

Your options include hand quilting, paying someone to quilt it for you, or doing it yourself. Since this was not a large quilt top, I was able to quilt it myself on my sewing machine.

But first, you'll need to make what's called a "quilt sandwich," which is a "sandwich" of the backing fabric, batting, and quilt top. Basting stitches keep things together until it is quilted.

Cut a piece of backing fabric that's about two inches wider than the quilt top all around. So if your quilt top measures 42.5" long, you'd want the backing fabric to be 44.5" long. Don't worry if it seems large at this stage. You'll be trimming it down to size once you're ready to bind the quilt.

Your batting fabric should also be about one to two inches wider than the quilt top all around. If the quilt top shifts during quilting, you'll have a little extra to work with.

I used "stitch in the ditch" quilting on this one, which basically involves sewing straight lines along many of the seams, as close to the "ditch" of the seam as possible. I chose to quilt in the seams in between blocks and around each star. 

Since this is a relatively small quilt top, you can use a regular home sewing machine for the top. However, quilting the top is still the most time-consuming part of the project. Take your time to ensure your lines look neat and that you aren't wrinkling the material as you go.

Bind the Quilt

Binding your quilt covers raw edges and gives a nice finished look. Start by laying your quilt on the floor and trimming the extra batting flush with the quilt top, leaving the backing fabric for now.

Next, trim your backing fabric to one inch extra all the way around. Fold and pin it under, mitering the corners as you go. Finally, stitch the binding down on your machine or by hand.

That's it! I hope you enjoyed learning how to make your own quilt and have discovered it isn't as hard as it might seam at first.

Would you try making your own quilt? What is your favorite quilt design?