Lotus Garden Baby Quilt Tutorial

This quilt pattern/tutorial is available as a word document here.

Lotus Garden Baby Quilt Pattern

This quilt is really quick and easy and brilliant for a beginner quilter (or for the more experienced) as it has no seams to match up, and it comes together really quickly. It could easily be made larger (or smaller) by adding (or subtracting) rows of squares.
Finished Quilt size 40” x 59” (102cm x 150cm) - see below for photo.

Materials and Tools:

Each of the print I have used is from Amy Butler’s Lotus collection – but could easily be substituted for other prints. This pattern works especially well for large prints as the squares are quite large.
The following quantities are based on standard 44” (112cm) wide fabric. Fat quarters are considered to be 18” x 21”.
One fat quarter (or quarter yard) of Lime Full Moon Polka Dot
One Fat quarter (or quarter yard) of Temple Garland in Pink
One Fat quarter (or quarter yard) of Lace Work Floral in brown
One Fat quarter of Wall Flower in green
½ yard of Lotus Pond in yellow.
2/3 yard  of Temple Garland in Green.  I used this in the quilt top as well as for binding fabric – if you prefer you could make a scrappy border using left over pieces from the quilt top (you will have remnants of each of the prints used).
1 1/4 yards of neutral fabric for sashing (I used Moda Bella Snow)
Two yards of backing fabric (I used Moda Bella Snow)

48” x 68”  Batting/wadding of choice (I used 100% organic bamboo batting)
Cotton thread for quilting and piecing
Rotary cutter, ruler and mat

Cutting:

From each of the fat quarters, cut five 6” squares. From the Lotus pond in yellow, cut five 6” squares. The fabric quantities given are sufficient to fussy cut your squares if desired. You should have a total of twenty five 6” squares.
From the Lotus Pond in yellow, cut two 4” strips across the WOF.
From the Temple Garland in green, cut two 3” strips across the WOF. For the binding cut six 2 1/2” strips across the WOF (this leaves you with extra binding length).
From the neutral fabric, cut fifteen 2 ½” strips across the WOF; sub-cut five of these into thirty 6” x 2 ½” rectangles.

Making the Rows of Squares:

All seam allowances are 1/4 “ throughout this pattern.

Sew a 6” x 2 ½” rectangle to one side of each 6” square (chain-piecing if preferred).  Press seams toward the print fabric.

At this stage, lay out your squares (with sashing strip on one side) five across and five down in an arrangement pleasing to the eye. Based on the layout you decided upon, sew the first two squares in each row together - you should now have five pairs of squares with sashing strips between them. Again, press seams toward the print fabric.

Continue in this manner, until you have five rows of 5 squares with sashing strips between each [diagram 3]. Finally , sew a sashing strip to the end of each row, and press toward the print fabric.

Making the Long Strips

This quilt has four sets of width of fabric strips of print fabric, with a neutral sashing strip on either side.

Sew  each of the 4” wide lotus pond strips to a 2 ½” WOF sashing strip, and press toward the printed fabric. Repeat this process on the other side of the lotus pond strip – you should end up with three strips joined as in Diagram 4. Sew each of the 3” wide temple garland fabric strips to sashing strips in the same manner. You should end up with four WOF sets of strips.
At this stage, lay out your rows of squares and strip sets and decide on a layout that you like (refer to the photo for layout plan).

Once you have chosen your layout, sew a WOF sashing strip to the bottom of your uppermost block row, and press toward the blocks. You will have some of the sashing strip overhanging on either side of the block strip – trim this so it is square with the sides of your block row.
Next, sew the next block row to the other side of the sashing strip (matching up the sides of the block strips), and press toward the block strip. You should end up with two block rows with a sashing strip between. Repeat this process for the bottom two block rows (so they have a sashing strip between them).

Now it’s time to join all your block rows and strip sets together. The strip sets are wider than the block rows so first of all, measure the width of your block rows and cut the strip sets to this width. Assemble the rows according to the photo on the last page.
When its done, quilt and bind as desired!

This pattern is intended for personal use only. Please do not distribute or copy it. I worked hard to write this up :)