by AmyBarickman
Laura Blanchard designed and pieced this 49" x 58" quilt that’s just the right size for a crib or to hang on a nursery wall. Longarm machine quilter Deb Jacobs quilted it with an allover pattern. You’ll need to purchase the panel that was designed for making a soft fabric object book for pre-readers. Laura fussy cut and machine quilted ten vintage images from the panel to pieced quarter-square triangle blocks. She recommends that you pin, baste, or glue-baste the circular images to these triangle blocks first. Laura also likes to prepare her pieces for turn under appliqué using no-melt template plastic and the starch method. For an even faster approach, just use raw edge appliqué around the circular images.

For the checkerboard center of the quilt, fussy cut twelve 5" square vintage images from the toss of children at play and alternate them with twelve star squares. Piece the rows and follow Laura’s clear instructions for assembling the quilt top. The inner border finishes at 1½" and the outer border at 5½". Cut 2½" bias strips from the stripe for the binding, sew them together end-to-end, and bind. Don’t forget to add a sleeve if your quilt is destined for the nursery wall. Time left over? Use a second panel to make matching a soft fabric book for your favorite pre-reader!

Download Pattern (455 KB pdf file)