Beginner Friendly Gingham Baby Quilt Tutorial
I’ve been trying to use up some fabrics in my stash (to make room for more, obviously), so I made a quick and easy baby quilt in a fun gingham design. This simple quilt is so easy to make and only requires three fabrics!
I think this is one of the easiest baby quilts to sew. I filmed a video tutorial for how to sew the gingham squares baby quilt and I made it beginner friendly, so you can make your own, even if you’re new to quilting.
I also created a FREE printable for this project! This “Quick Quilt Guide” is a one-page printable reference for how to make a gingham baby quilt so that you can have it on hand, stick it in your sewing binder and make the quilt without having to refer back to the video every time.
Watch the video below to learn how to make this easy baby quilt, then keep reading for tips on making the quilt in any size, picking fabrics, and some links on how to finish your quilt.
Making the gingham quilt in any size
A typical baby quilt size is anything from 30”-40”. This finished quilt that I made is 30” x 36”. Once you understand the blocks that this quilt is made up of though, you can make it in any size you want!
You can do some simple math to add enough blocks to make your quilt as big as you want, OR you can cut the starting squares bigger so you’ll end up with a bigger quilt. Neither of these methods is wrong! Don’t feel like there are absolutes in the quilt size world — quilts can be any size you like or that makes sense for the blocks you’re using.
Choosing fabrics for a gingham quilt
To make a gingham quilt, you need three fabrics that are different values. One dark, one light, and one medium. Solids work very well for this quilt design and can give it that literal gingham look. Black, white, and gray, for example, are a great choice, as are three values of any color, such as in the graphic below.
I don’t do a great job of collecting solids and since this was a stash busting project for me, I chose print fabrics instead! My fabrics “read” light, dark and medium and are the same shades as the solid colors in the graphic above, but they’re prints. And they still work!
If you feel confident, you can make a scrap quilt with this design, of course, and use many different fabrics. Just decide which fabrics are light, dark, or medium, and you’re all set. I think that would be a very cool quilt!
When choosing fabrics and cutting the squares, keep in mind that you need twice as many of your medium fabric as you need of your light and dark fabrics, since the medium squares appear twice in each block.
If you’re new to quilting, I have several resources her for how to finish your quilt! A baby size is the perfect way to learn the quilt sandwich and binding process. Click here to learn about making the quilt sandwich and to learn how to quilt it, and click here for my binding tutorial.
And don’t forget to grab your free printable version of this project!
I hope you enjoy this tutorial and are inspired to make this simple baby quilt for beginners! Quilting is such a joy :)
Cheers!
Nikki
Learn to hand quilt with minimal tools and without the perfectionism!