Quick Quilts

I needed to knock up a couple of extra child size quilts for the visiting grand-children, with limited time available. I came up with two quick solutions. For the real thing, (i.e. proper home made quilts) see my posts on children's quilts here and here. But for a quick make, how about these two ideas?

This has to be one of the fastest quilts I've ever made. It's super lightweight, more of a blanket, really, but May and June were exceptionally hot here. 

You can read about how to make this, and another simple quilt, below.

I used a piece of double-sided ready quilted fabric. You can see the two sides below, one with squares and circles, and the other with an abstract pattern of scrolls.

I really wish now I had bought more of these fabrics, when I saw them in the shops, because they are now much harder to find. I've used them a lot for different projects: rucksacks, playmats, a dolls carry cot, etc. The fabrics have mostly been at least 60" or 150cm wide. I would ideally make this from about a metre and a half  - however, the piece I had here was not much more than a metre square - say 102cm x 105 cm, or a yard and a bit each way - because I'd already used some for a child's rucksack and other things. But fine for a little cot quilt.

The quilt was as simple as can be. I rounded off the corners using a small plate to give my curve. 

Then I put double-fold bias binding tape all the way round. And that's it! Done!

I always sew double-fold bias binding in two stages. (First opening it out on one side and attaching that, then refolding it and sewing the other side.) I tried once attaching it all in one go, sewing through both sides, on a baby towel, but it slipped a bit in the machine, and I ended up re-sewing so many bits where it had missed, that I might just as well have done it in two stages in the first place.

Here is the first side sewn.

And here, the tape is folded over again and pinned ready to have the second side sewn. You can also see how I've joined the ends on the diagonal to lose some of the bulk of the join. 

Close ups of the finished edge - you can see how I've 'stitched in the ditch' on the second side for a neat finish: 

The second quilt is probably the second fastest one I've made (after the above). This one is a slightly warmer version, though you could make it whatever weight you wanted.

I had picked up some large pieces of this poly cotton teddy bear fabric at a children's farm / wildlife centre. Each piece was about a metre by 144cm (just over a yard by a yard and a half). Why they had it for sale there, I have no idea, but it was a bargain, and it had been sitting around in my stash waiting for the right project. 

My plan was to sew the quilt inside out, then turn it the right way out. To do this, I would leave a gap for turning. However, I wanted to make life a bit easier, once it was the right way out. So, before I sewed it up, I first folded in and pressed single 'hems' in along the seam allowance (about 1cm, or 3/8")  on the side where the gap would be.  I then laid the two pieces of the fabric right sides together, and proceeded to lay some light weight batting on top. I pinned all round, marking where my gap would be with double pins, and trimmed the batting to be the same size. Sewing directly on top of batting can cause havoc  - the needle and / or the presser foot can entangle, or some of the batting can be forced down into the innards of the machine. I avoided this by pinning narrow strips of a very fine gauze on top of the batting along my seam line. It was so fine it made virtually no difference to the thickness of the seam, but it stopped any entanglement.

I then sewed the three layers together on all four sides, bar the gap on one side of about 10 inches or 25cm. 

Once it was sewn all round, I turned it the right way out through the opening, poking out the corners with a thin chopstick. You do need to be very careful if you press a quilt with batting inside, as the batting will tend to melt and fuse under a hot iron. I recommend not using too hot an iron, and pressing under a damp cloth.

I over-sewed all round, including the opening, with its already pressed hems turned in. On the picture above, you can see the over-sewn edge at the bottom of the picture.

And finally, I sewed about three lines across and three lines down, dividing the quilt into fourths both down and across, to hold the batting in place. You could do a lot more 'quilting', but this was intended to be a very quick fix to the need for bedding for visiting grand-children, and those three lines in each dimension are sufficient to hold it all together in the wash. So each of the sections was about 24-25cm - 10" or so - by 35cm - about 14".

And it makes a nice cosy quilt.

Both of these have already had good use. I intended to make more, and perhaps would have done if there had been more time, but these both wash and dry like a dream, so my time has been spent on more urgent projects.