I’m back with Today’s feature: My Baby Bird Crib Quilt.

Now, let me start by saying that I am no quilting expert…I have only made a couple of quilts in my lifetime and they are never perfect.  That being said, I could not find a quilt that fit what I was looking for so I decided to give a shot  at designing my own.

My finished quilt is 36″X52″

• Fabric: 100% Cotton
• 2.5 yds for backing and borders
• 1 yd each of 6 prints
• 1 crib size cotton batting
• Fabric for binding
• Thread
• Iron on adhesive (Heat and Bond)

I choose a fabric with a white background and birds in primary and secondary colors.  I wanted the quilt to be appropriate for either a boy or a girl, because we never find out the gender before the baby is born.

My other fabrics were patterns in the colors of the birds:

red, orange, yellow, blue, green & brown.

After the fabric is chosen, bring it home and wash it in baby detergent and iron it.  Cut as follows:

Bird Fabric:

(1) 35″ X 52 “

(2) 4″ X 29″

(2) 4″ X 50″

(4) 6″X12.5″

(1) 6″ X 45″

One of each color:

12.5″ X 12.5″

Next I applied the adhesive to about a 12″ X 12″ portion of each colored fabric.  I then cut

1 body,  1 Wing and 1 triangle for a beak from each color.

This is the pattern I used to cut the body and wing.  I cut a small triangle for each beak.

I assembled each bird with one part in each color and another color for the base.  I  ironed each piece to it’s base so now I had (6) 12.5″ X 12.5″ squares with the birds adhered.  I ran each through the sewing machine with the zigzag stitch set wide and short.  Having never done this before there may be a better way, or a better stitch but I was very happy with the results. I added little feet to each.

I then sewed the quilt front together:

(1) 6″ X 12.5″ to the bottom of four of the bird squares.

Sew a bird square on the bottom each of those rows.  Now you have 2 rows.

Join those rows in the center with the 6″X45″ piece

Add a 4″X29″ piece to the top and bottom, and then a 4″X50″ to each side.

Next I built my quilt sandwich, layering the quilt top, the batting (I use the natural cotton as I like the feel and weight of it for a baby quilt), and the backing.

I pinned it and “stitched in the ditch around each square and around the large outer rectangle.  I created the binding with the orange fabric or you can use store bought binding.

I hand stitched the binding to the back.

The final product:

Thanks for checking out my tutorial!  I know it is not a technically correct quilt, but I was happy with the results and wanted to share!

Be sure to comment to enter to win a baby birdhouse at the end of our Baby Bird Nursery series!