When I saw the adorable panels by Poppie Cotton for their new Hopscotch & Freckles fabric line, I knew immediately I wanted to make a cheater version of a puff quilt.
I chose my favorite color way of the cute pictorial panel, as well as some backing and binding. To make this size quilt, you will need around 1 1/4 yards of each fabric for front and back, and just over 1/4 yard for binding.
Start by pressing the front and back fabric. Then lay out your front fabric. (You can of course use a non-panel fabric, but then you will have to mark your own grids. This panel has a grid of 3 x 4". A larger grid could work, but I don't recommend going smaller.)
Since I am working within the limits of the fabric print, I didn't get an exact yard cut, since I wanted to have complete pictures. So I just measured the closest to 36" in each direction, and trimmed the fabric about an inch farther out.
You will be stitching your final row on these two lines, and trim off the excess later.
Now get your backing. This quilt will be reversible, so you can use a basic like I did, or mix it up with another fun print. Keep in mind that you won't be able to keep it straight though, so a striped fabric, for instance, will probably end up looking crooked.
Lay them out wrong sides together and put a few pins in to keep them in place for now. The backing should be a little larger than the top fabric to allow for shifting.
Now we are going to stitch the first row of lines. It's so handy to have the lines to follow on the fabric! We will stitch the horizontal lines first, starting in the middle, and stitching each one across the fabric.
When you get to the last row on the grid, go ahead and stitch it. The rest of it will be trimmed later.
Here is my fabric with all the horizontal stitched lines. You won't need any more pins, as this quite secures the two fabric layers together.
Now it's time to start making and stuffing the pockets! We again start in the middle, and stitch the first vertical line.
Now that a 3 sided pocket has been made, it's time to stuff it and stitch it closed, which also makes the next pocket. This is the PERFECT use for leftover quilt batting that has been trimmed from your quilts but isn't wide enough to reuse easily.
You will need to experiment with how much to use. Start with less, as it's easier to add more than to take some back out. Stick it in the first channel and tamp it down with a ruler or some such object. (Even this small of a quilt, the first rows are a bit harder to do, so if you cut your fabric larger for a bigger quilt, be prepared for the center rows to be challenging.)
Once you're satisfied with the fullness, hold it down with your hand and stitch about 2/3rds of the way across it.
Stop with the needle DOWN, and stuff the next one.
Continue all along the first row. Here is my first row. You can see that it will draw up the fabric so it's no longer flat and straight. The good news is that if you stitch a crooked row or something, it won't be noticeable at all.
Continue working from the center out, stuffing each pocket and stitching it closed. Here is my first half done.
Now rotate the quilt and work from the center out in the opposite direction. It will get pretty bulky but this size is still small enough to handle fairly well.
All done!
Now trim with a scissors about 1/2" from the edge of the outer stitched line.
You can see it is ruffled, and thus if you do a regular quilt binding, it will ruffle too. I have a tip for that, so hang on.
Cut and press your binding strip just like for a regular quilt. I cut mine 2 1/4" wide, joined them end to end, and pressed in half. Since I wanted to machine stitch this binding, I'm sewing it to the wrong side of the quilt.
As you sew the binding, take a pinch out of each pocket section, and pleat or fold it over. This will use up the extra fabric and keep the edge from ruffling.
All finished! Look at the fun plush texture.
While it can be used as a crib blanket or comforter, my main goal was to make a floor quilt that has more padding, so that when an infant has tummy time, the little head is more protected from the hard floor. Of course I had to try it out with my own baby girl.
Got a few smiles too!
Look at the adorable pictures and the fun puffs.
Mine shrank down to about 31-32", but that's still a good size for an infant.
It's the new favorite play blanket of my older children as well. And I made it from start to finish, even with taking photos, in a few hours. I hope if you try one you let me know how it turns out!
Check out the other creations on this fabric tour:
