This is an easy charm quilt pattern for a beginner. I am COMPLETELY new to quilting. In fact this is my very first quilt so I’ll be learning along with you! Because I am so new I looked at a few patterns, one for a rag quilt, one for a charm quilt and one for a baby quilt, and altered them a bit for my Blythe-sized doll quilt. Remember this is a rag doll quilt so it’s not going to look pristine unless you are a seasoned quilter which I definitely am not. Also be sure to read to the end of this post for things learned upon making this. 😉
First cut out 25 1.5 inch wide squares of your chosen fabric(s) and lay them out as you would prefer them to look by your sewing area. If you want a rectangular quilt you’ll need to cut 5 rows of 8 squares = 40 squares.
Next sew 5 rows of 5 squares each with a 1-2 cm seam allowance. After you’ve sewn all of your rows press them and sew them in numerical order to each other (see how messy I sew??).
Next cut out a thin piece of fabric in your desired pattern the size of your quilt and piece them off sides together if you’re quilt stitching. Quilt stitching is the part I don’t understand so after doing extensive research online I found out that there really is no easy way to do it. You can do it yourself or ask a quilter to help you out. You can find a pattern online and follow the pattern by hand or machine. I chose to skip it.
To give your quilt a more finished look you’ll want to bind the borders with fabric — or make it easy and use thick-ribbon. I’m also new at binding so I decided to skip it this time and sew my quilt to the other panel as though I was making a pillow. I put them right sides together and sewed around the edges leaving a small (2-3 inch) space. Then I turned the blanket right-side out and, because I am not a quilter, sewed a line from one corner to the other making a big X to keep the pieces together.
Things I learned: Next time I’m going to make it 5 squares by 8 squares for a Blythe-bed sized quilt. I didn’t think about how small it would be getting upon sewing it, duh!
9 Comments
That’s so cute!! I can sew clothes, but I don’t really know anything at all about quilting, so I really like seeing this post. 😀
I’m a beginner sewer even those I have been sewing for years, LOL. 🙂 I’ve made a rag quilt about 6 years ago and love it. It’s not big enough now that my family of 2 turned to 4 so I’m in the process of making a new one twice the size. I love sewing but don’t do it as often as I would like.
Yours turned out great!
Oh it’s so cute ! When I was young, I had try to make this, but my mother and my tante helped me because It was hard (not sewing machine – every thing at needle >_<)Your pattern is so cute !
This is awesome! I started quilting not too long ago
however I stoped because I couldn’t find any easy patterns
so this is a big help! 😀 thanks!
Maybe I’ll use this to make a big quilt for my bed (:
It’s so cool you are a creative person and do all this crafts and awesome
artwork! (:
I’ve never quilted before but thanks for the tutorial. I should try it and give a small quilt to someone for christmas.There’s a place in the city called Arts Junktion, an art supply recycling charity, I can get my fabric free from there.
Your quilt is very cute! I can’t imagine making anything with the tiny squares..thanks for sharing the pictures with us.
Kraftkj swap bot
Nice tutorial. I totally understood it. I am a beginner sewer so I will try this.
Love your blog! I recently found a nice beginners quilting book in a used book store and am waiting to find time to try it out. I have been wanting to quilt for a while and have some fabric lying around waiting to be used