The 64 Square Quilt {for a baby}

 So I am not a quilter. There I said it. I love quilts, my Grandmother was a quilter, (and her quilts were to die for) my mom dabbled in quilts, and although I have made a quilt for each of my kids when they were babies, I am not a quilter. I just love babies and quilts. Someday maybe I will share the Beatles quilt I made for Jude, or the bird embroidered quilt I made for Abbey, but both of those had countless hours poured into them. I still love quilts for babies. So when I decided to make a friend a gift set for the soon arrival of their first baby. (a little boy) I knew I wanted to add a quilt to my “go-to” baby boy gift set.  The quilt was super easy to make and it came together super fast in one afternoon. (few short hours from start to finish is my kind of project)
So here is how I did it, although again, I am not a quilter,this is not even technically a quilt since I didn’t add any batting,  so you know it’s just how I made it.

 I started by drawing out my grid like so. I decided on rows of 8X8. Simple squares.

 Then I simply drew in the design I wanted. This can be anything you want and if you are like me you draw out oh…12 before you find the one you like the best. You can follow the design above if you like, or make your own.

 Then it’s time to cut cut cut. I used fabrics from the Curious Nature Collection by Parsons Gray I had one fat quarter bundle and 1/2 yard of the stepping stones. I LOVE the masculine colors and style. I fell in love the instant I saw it and I have plenty left over to make baby shoes and bow ties, binky clips, you know all that fun stuff.
So I cut out all my squares 4.5 inches by 4.5 inches. I cut 8 of each of the 4 colors and 32 from the grey stepping stones. I used a 3/8 seam allowance when sewing all the squares and the finished quilt was 30 inches by 30 inches.

 When sewing sew right sides together sewing one row at a time. Press all of your seams flat.

 1 down 7 more to go…

 When you have your rows done. Match right sides together one row with the next and match all the seams as you go. Press your seams flat.

 Then you should have all your rows sewn together. It’s a good time to even up any edges that may be slightly off.

 Then I used the super soft “ultra cuddle fleece” for the back. I scored some from the remanent bin so I got it super cheap and half a yard was enough for the back. (I had to cut and add a seam so I could get a square large enough but it worked) Then with a square the size as the quilt front sew right sides together all around the edges leaving an opening to turn the quilt right side out.
*To make this an actual quilt you could add batting now, but I wanted to keep it nice and light, so it’s really just a blanket with a pieced front.

 Then turn the edge from the opening under and pin in place. Smooth out the whole quilt top and add safety pins to secure the two layers together. This helps with the top stitching so that you can be sure everything stays smooth.

 Now sew around the entire outside edge which closes the opening. You can also go all free style curvy stitching on top of the quilt, but that’s where I fail as a quilter. So I just ran some stitches up and down along the seams, simple and clean.

 Then you are done with a simple and quick, quilted front fuzzy back perfect for baby.

It was so quick and easy I think I may just make a few more, since I kind of want to keep this one 🙂