A Cheater's Quilt

Many of you know I'm not really much of a sewer. And if you didn't after this clutch bag/felt and interfacing mix up, you do now!

So when I decided I wanted to make a couple of quilts I knew I didn't quite have the skills to pull off the quilting and binding bit. But after a lot of seam ripping and thinking I think I have come up with an awesome alternative; The Cheater's Quilt (aka how to make a quilt the easy way, I was going to call it the "Quickie Quilt" but changed my mind...).

And here's the other one:

This is for my friend's new baby boy, and the other is for my niece who is turning one next week. They're both cot size or pram size but you can make your's whatever size you want.

To make these I got squares of fabric and jumpers (for the blue and grey one, I'm SO not a knitter, I mean I really suck!). I cut out big squares and little squares. The little ones need to be a quarter of the size of your big ones plus an inch to add a half inch seam allowance.

I then laid them out on the floor till I was happy with the way they looked and sewed them together a line at a time. This cushion tutorial will show you in more detail how to do the patchwork part. With the blue one I went for a traditional lined up square approach, but with the pink one I intentionally (and unintentionally) made them off center on some lines.

Once I was all done I got my backing piece and cut it the same size as the patchwork piece, rounding the corners using a bowl as a template.

Now for the cheating part. Instead of binding, which I really struggled with, just lay them right sides together, stitch round the outside (leaving a few inches for turning), turn, iron and top stitch round the whole thing; being sure to stitch up the hole.

Ta-da!

The only difference with this one is that I added some wadding the same size as the front and stitched them to each other with two straight lines (my version of quilting) adding in the lace on one of the lines.

Super easy, took maybe three hours each? That includes cutting squares, stitching together and piecing everything.

This one is totally a cheap eco version. most of the squares are from clothes Izzy has grown out of. The turquoise is a top I was given that didn't suit me and the yellow is left over from our kitchen blind! Oh and the backing is from Izzy's old-but-barely-used curtains. In fact the only fabric I bought for this one was the pink linen which was £1 for one yard. And I have loads left! 

I'm now thinking I need a huge version of this blue one for me and the hubs...

Anyone got any spare jumpers?