Quilt Recipe: Cute Baby Quilt using Three Fat Quarters

I'm a big fan of the Free Spirit 20 fat quarter mystery bundle that is sold on Amazon.  You get all sorts of stuff, but I love it (and you can see from my reviews of it).  Part of the fun and creativity is how to use this economical bundle.

In one of my purchases, I had four fat quarters in David Walker's Raining Cats and Dogs fabric line.  The fabric was very cute, and I wanted to figure out a way to use it in a quilt.  After much consideration I came up with the following quilt.

This pattern was super easy, and I feel like is a wonderful way to showcase cute bright fabrics.  I don't have a quilting program, but found a freeware called Inkscape.  It is powerful (but a bit of a learning curve), and helpful way to layout quilt ideas.  I used it to optimize the fabric that I had on hand.  Below is how I was able to visualize what I wanted to do with the colors and sizes.

This quilt is made from 3 fat quarters and a background fabric.  There are 6 columns and 12 rows.  the finished block size is 3.5" x 6.5".  Cut size is 4" x 7".  I was able to get 12 blocks from each fat quarter with NO waste.  I think that 3 bright, cheerful prints works quite well.  Using the same fabric in each row created a lovely disbursement of color to my eye.  I will definitely be making more like this.

I pieced the back using a split fat quarter from the same fabric line.  I carefully pieced it so that it would look seamless.  The balance of the fabric was a 1 yard piece of fabric I had purchased from Tuesday Morning. It was in the teal blue family range.  I used white strips to provide a break.  I had originally thought to make everything perfectly balanced (equally-sized teal), but elected to let it be more organic  with a little more at the top.  The binding was from a set of colorful 2.5" precut strips that picked up the teal, orange, blue and yellow.  I love how this came together.

I created a "Quilt Recipe" for this:

Print Recipe

Three Fat Quarters Baby Quilt

This Quilt uses 3 bright and colorful fat quarters (with NO WASTE) plus your choice of background fabric to create a 39" x 42" quilt. Use background of your choice. Easy for beginners and showcases fabric choices.

Yield: 39.5 x 42.5" Quilt

Serves: 1

Ingredients

• 1 fatqtr Fabric A Cut WOF, 4" strips; subcut into 7" lengths; QTY 12
• 1 fatqtr Fabric B Cut WOF, 4" strips; subcut into 7" lengths; QTY 12
• 1 fatqtr Fabric C Cut WOF, 4" strips; subcut into 7" lengths; QTY 12
• 6 strips Fabric D (Background) Cut WOF, 4" strips; subcut into 7"' lengths; QTy 36
• 4 2.5" strips Binding 2.5" x WOF strips for a total of ~174"

Directions

1. This quilt is 6 rows x 12 rows of alternating blocks. Finished quilt is approximately 42.5" x 39.5". You will need
2. Column
3. Row 1 2 3 4 5 6
4. 1 A D A D A D
5. 2 D B D B D B
6. 3 C D C D C D
7. 4 D A D A D A
8. 5 B D B D B D
9. 6 D C D C D C
10. 7 A D A D A D
11. 8 D B D B D B
12. 9 C D C D C D
13. 10 D A D A D A
14. 11 B D B D B D
15. 12 D C D C D C
16. A Fabric A
17. B Fabric B
18. C Fabric C
19. D Fabric D (Background)

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