Star Patchwork Doll Quilt

At the beginning of this week I shared that I was going to be participating in a competition for craft bloggers called So You Think You're Crafty. The theme for this week was Stash Bust, the projects were posted anonymously on Monday and the winner for the week was announced today along with who made which project so now I can tell you which one was mine and share the tutorial. My project didn't win this week but I did make it through to next week. My project was the little doll quilt.

I decided to make a doll quilt because I wanted to do something that would use some small scraps but also not take forever to make because I needed something that I could finish in just a few days. It actually turned out kind of on the big size for a doll quilt because I had originally planned for 2 blocks by 3 blocks but when I finished that it was a really long, skinny shape and I didn't like it so I added another row. It turned out about 28 inches square, so more of a wrap your baby doll up size of blanket rather than a doll bed size.

The design was one that I had drawn up in my little idea notebook a long time ago but I had originally drawn the design so that all of the blocks would have white as one of the colors, where the print fabrics are, but because I was using scraps and I didn't have a big piece of white I decided to make each block of two fabrics, one print and one solid. I used some leftover, partially used fat quarters that I had, they were from the Fresh Cut line from Basic Grey. The solids were some left over from my Pop of Color Pillow. I had 6 prints and 6 solids that I paired up for each block, 3 of each kind of fabric was used twice for a total of 9 blocks. I used another partial fat quarter for the border and the last one for binding, then I found a piece of flannel in my stash to use for the back.

The quilt uses lots of little half square triangles, there are 16- 2 1/2" squares (2" finished) in each block. I did not want to sew that many squares individually so I used a method that makes 8 half square triangles at a time. It was so much quicker and easier than only making 2 at a time like I usually do. Because the blanket is already kind of a big doll quilt it would be really easy to make it into a baby quilt simply by adding bigger borders or another row of blocks.

How to Make Star Patchwork Doll Quilt

Finished size about 28" square

You will need:

• Assorted solid and print scraps at least 6"x12", 1 of each for 9 blocks
• I used 6 partially used fat quarters for my prints, 3 prints were used twice
• I used 6 scraps leftover from a 1/4 yard cut for my solids, 3 were used twice
• Fat quarter or for border
• Fat quarter for binding
• 1 yard flannel for back (or piece at least 30" square)
• 30" square cotton batting
• coordinating thread
• rotary cutter, mat, and ruler
• sewing machine
• marking pen or pencil

Cutting Instructions:

You will need 9 blocks, each made with 1 print and 1 solid

Pair together your 9 prints and 9 solids and cut:

2- 5 3/4"squares from each of your 9 prints

2- 5 3/4" squares from each of your 9 solids

For the border cut:

5- 2 1/2" x 22" strips from the fat quarter (mine was a little short so I had to cut 6 strips)

OR if you are using yardage and have longer pieces cut:

2- 2 1/2" x  24 1/2"

2- 2 1/2" x 28 1/2"

Cut binding:

6- 2"x 22" strips (if you cut from yardage you will only need 3)

Assembly: 

Pair together your prints and solids, you will need 2 print squares and 2 solid squares for each block (of the same fabric). On each set of 2 squares draw an x on one of your squares (choose whichever one the mark shows up on best, I think I marked all of my solids) on the wrong side of the fabric. 

With print and solid fabric wrong sides together sew 1/4" on both sides of each line

Cut the block down the center in both directions to create 4 smaller squares, then cut diagonally on the line that you drew. 

You should now have 8 little half square triangles that are about 2 1/2" square. Press them open, repeat the process until all of your squares are ready. You should end up with 16 squares of each color combination. 

Lay them out to create the pattern shown in the pictures, 4 squares x 4 squares. Sew them together into 4 rows of 4 squares each and then sew the 4 rows together to create the block. Press all of your seams as you sew. When you have all of your blocks sewn together you will sew them into 3 rows of 3 blocks, then sew those rows together to create the quilt top. 

For the borders, if you cut the strips from a fat quarter you will need to piece them. I did this because I was using scraps, I just sewed all of the strips together and then cut them to the right size. If your strips are already cut to the right size then you can just sew them on. First sew the 2 shorter strips on opposite sides, then sew the longer strips on the other 2 sides.

Sandwich together your backing, batting and finished quilt top and quilt as desired. Trim extra batting and backing. 

To bind the quilt, again I was working with a small amount of fabric so I cut 2" strips, sewed them together, pressed them like bias tape, folded in half with the raw edges folded into the center. Then I opened it back up and placed the raw edge of the binding along the outside of the quilt front, wrong sides together,  and sewed in the fold line. Then I folded it back up so that the raw edges were all tucked back inside and it was folded over the edge of the quilt encasing the raw edge. I then sewed around the edge of the quilt over the binding to sew down the back. 

I also made a little pillow with one of the scraps leftover. I cut 2- 5 1/2" x 7" rectangle and sewed them together with rickrack in between and stuffed it. 

 My daughter and my nieces had fun playing with the little quilt with their babies, I made the pillow as kind of an afterthought and it was super easy but I think that was one of their favorite parts.