How to Make a Cotbed Quilt for Beginners, Step 1: Materials

I only recently bought my first sewing machine but have rapidly become a huge enthusiast.  I am still very much a beginner but following this wonderful series I was able to produce my very first cotbed quilt.

Ok, so it is a little wonky, but I am still amazed that it is finished and I think a little bit of wonkiness adds to the charm.

I learnt quite a bit along the way and when I found out that my next door neighbour was expecting her 3rd baby in April I figured it was a great opportunity to have another go at it.  I am not sure what she is expecting yet though so am going to have to be a little bit careful with the colour scheme!

 

 

 

This time I have decided to document my progress in a series of blog posts along the way, warts and all.  All mistakes will be included, and I am sure there will be many as I am really still quite hopeless, but I am hoping that some of you who seemed to like the first one might want to come along with me and give it a go yourself.

I am really going to break this down into very simple steps so be warned, if you are already a keen sewer this is probably not for you.  This is really for beginners like myself who have no clue where to begin.

I cannot promise a weekly post as I know that sometimes life and work will get in the way but I do hope to post regularly, in stages, and hopefully bit by bit we will piece together our quilts by April.

So here we go with the first stage.

 

Step 1: Materials

 

Fabric.

This is such a personal choice so I will leave this bit very much up to you.

For the front you will need 64 5×5″squares.  Charm packs are a great way to start as they are all cut for you.  I also wanted to make sure my quilt was 100% cotton.

For the quilt above I used a selection from 3 charm packs from Cotton Patch.  I chose Camden Market, essential plains and essential marbles.

For this quilt I am using a selection called Bungle Jungle from Fabric Rehab plus a few leftovers from the previous batch and some plain white fabric squares I cut myself.

If you feel the selection of charm packs is too limited why not see what old clothes, blankets, fabrics etc you have lying around the house and use these instead?  In the future I hope to cut squares from some of W’s and baby no 2’s old onesies and t-shirts to make a memory quilt for myself.

We will worry about the borders and the backing fabric a bit later.

 

Cutting Materials.

You will also need a cutting mat, rotary cutter and rulers.

 

Sewing Materials.

As well as your sewing machine you will need lots of pins, scissors, a seam-ripper and lots and lots and lots of thread.

 

And once you have got all of this we will be ready for Step 2: Preparing to Sew The Front of Your Quilt.