Another weekend, another baby shower! And I realized that I never made a quilt for my cousin for her first two boys, so it’s time to make one for the girl finally entering our family! Of our 8-cousin group, we’ve only had boys so far!
So I knew I wanted to make a patchwork quilt, and this pinterest photo was my original inspiration:
Unfortunately, the floral was sold out everywhere, and I didn’t have time for destash groups. So I stopped on that journey. I really love it though, so maybe I’ll keep hunting it down and see what I can find. It wasn’t even on Etsy.
Anyway, I switch course to a standard jelly roll + linen-ish neutral quilt. Now that I’ve reminded myself of the inspirational photo, I don’t like it quite as much as the gingham overload quilt, but I’ll get over it.
16-patch Quilt Details
- Jelly Roll: Cottage Charm by Heather Briggs I got mine at Stash Fabrics.
A little note on using this particular jelly roll for this project. I didn’t realize it had 42 different fabrics, so there were NO DUPLICATES. Which are kind of necessary for a 16-patch quilt. I still like how it turned out because I was able to group similar-enough fabrics. But I would have liked it better if they were actually the same fabrics in each block. You’ll see what I mean in a minute - Essex Yarn-Dyed Homespun in Natural Also from Stash Fabrics. I really love this fabric, probably more than the Essex Linen I usually use. It’s a little softer. I always pre-wash this because it will shrink a ton, but I don’t prewash the cotton and it turns out fine 😬 Obviously, you can’t prewash a jelly roll!
- Backing: Pink Minky from Fabric Wholesale Direct Worked out well, and I liked that it was smooth instead of dimpled. I really hate the dimpled minky, but other people must love it because that’s all I can find most of the time 🫠
- Batting: Quilters Dream Request Didn’t realize I bought Request instead of Select this time, but it’s a little thinner which works with the minky.
My hand-drawn pattern
I guess I’m not as scared of quilt math as some people, because I just grab graph paper and make a pattern for these easy things. Calculations would be more complicated for triangles, though, and I do run out of fabric sometimes. But still I just go for it.
If you want to decipher these notes, be my guest. But the quilt was 56″x56″ and I knew I was working with 2.5″ jelly roll strips
16-patch quilt in process
Started by sewing the jelly roll strips to the linen and making the long stripes that would be cut down to 2.5″ strips, then flipped around for blocks. This is a pretty normal method of doing 16-patch blocks. I press everything to the patterned fabric and then all the seams nest nicely.
so many strips turned into so many blocks and I had to iron all of them… but they looked great, so I don’t really regret it. It’s just a process.
The quilt top layout to remember in case the dogs walk all over it lol
Finished quilt top!
I’ve been doing the elmer’s glue basting method lately, and it’s been working great. Obviously cheaper than spray basting, and I don’t think it’s making my machine gunky. Washes out well, too.
Added my new Made in 2025 quilt tags! I bought the Handmade by Danielle Wilson tags so long ago, and I have so many, I don’t remember the details.
Did a wavy stitch along the seams in one direction, because I don’t have the patience or the sewing machine throat space to do a grid pattern ever. I do like that it protects the seams from fraying in case the seam allowances are a little too scant.
Finished Result!
The linen + the minky backing really makes the quilt warm and cozy. It’s hard to describe unless you make one, so I highly recommend you try the combo out.
It really turned out so nice. Although I wish there had been more pinks than peach colored, I still think it’s nice.
Yay love it 😊
OK, have you made a 16-patch quilt? I’m going to make one for my son next for his twin size bed, so we’ll see how fast I can work up that one. I will be using fat quarters though, so a little more cutting 🤪 but I have like 10 books to listen to, so I’ll get on it soon.
Thanks for following along!