Tumbler Baby Quilt

June 17, 2014

One of my new Arizona friends is expecting her second child in a few weeks, a sweet baby girl named Olivia. After buying some pretty pinks and yellows I found out that the new mom HATES pink. Oops! Time to rethink this one. I found out that she’s doing a gray and yellow theme for her nursery so I headed out to my local quilt shop for inspiration.

Look what I found! Aren’t these cute?!

I had a tumbler template that I ordered from the Missouri Star Quilt Company and had never tried out. Although the template was designed for use with charm packs, I made it work! I just cut 5″ strips from my yardage and then subcut the strips into tumbler shapes. I cut out the whole quilt in less than an hour – it was that easy!

I arranged and rearranged until I found an order that I was happy with and stitched the little quilt together!

I decided to trim off the sides so that they were straight. That way I could machine bind the edges, making it stronger and more durable for multiple washings. Babies are messy, right?

I used the edge of my walking foot to stitch lines on either sides of the seams, leaving a zig zag down the quilt. I used a border print for my backing. This is probably a big quilter “no-no” but I’m anti-quilt police! I couldn’t resist those tulips!

I always struggle with machine binding. It always seems to want to wiggle on me or not come out the way that I like. This time I did some experimenting until I found a method that I liked. First, I stitched the binding to the back. I then pulled the binding to the front, and glue basted it using Elmer’s glue. Once all set, I used a decorative stitch to keep it in place. I think it turned out pretty well! It’s definitely a bit more time-consuming to glue baste, but it made the stitching SO easy. I recommend using this technique!