HST Leftovers Free Baby Quilt Pattern

Happy Monday! Today I have a finished quilt and a free baby quilt tutorial to share with you! I recently made a baby quilt for one of Michael's co-workers and decided to use it as an opportunity to write a tutorial! It's the same design as the Leftovers Quilt I made last year.


The first quilt (the Leftovers Quilt shown above) I made in this design started from a desire to use up a pile of leftover half-square triangles. I had a good number, but not quite enough to make a healthy throw quilt. I thought about just making more half-square triangle blocks, but instead decided to extend the blocks by making them into (almost) quarter square triangle blocks. The blocks are made with one half-square triangle and one print square. So you end up with a block that has a half triangle and two quarter triangles.


Specifically for this baby quilt version I knew I wanted to use a bunch of black and white fabrics. Nowadays there is lots of high-contrast things for newborns, so I thought it would fun to feature high contrast prints in a baby quilt. Of course I had to add a few pops of color too.


The baby quilt I'm sharing in this tutorial is 40" square and has 5" finished blocks. You could make this quilt larger (or smaller), by making more blocks or by making the blocks larger. If you're using up leftover half-square triangles from your stash, just match them up with fabric squares of the same size!


I kept the quilting simple (as usual!) with some straight lines on either side of the seams.


The backing is one of my prints from Geometric Bliss.


For the binding I was able to use up a bunch of binding scraps that matched! Very satisfying.


To gift this baby quilt I made a drawstring bag to match! This is an Artist size bag from my lined drawstring bag pattern, which is my favorite size for baby quilts.

Half-square Triangle Leftovers Baby Quilt Tutorial:

Sewing Level: Beginner Friendly
Finished Size: 40"x40"
Finished Block Size: 5"x5"

Materials:
- 1 yard total Colorful Fabrics
- 5/8 yard Black Fabric
- 5/8 yard Background Fabric
- 48"x48" quilt batting
- 2 2/3 yards of backing fabric
- 1/3 yard of binding fabric

Cutting:
From Colorful Fabrics:
- Cut a total of (32) 6" squares

From Black Fabric:
- Cut a total of (16) 6.5" squares

From Background Fabric:
- Cut a total of (16) 6.5" squares

Half-square Triangle Leftovers Baby Quilt Instructions:
*Use a 1/4” seam allowance unless otherwise noted.*

Block Construction:

1. Make Half-square Triangle Blocks: Using a marking pen or a pencil, draw a diagonal line across the wrong side of all 6.5” background squares. Place one 6.5" background square and one 6.5" black square right sides together. Stitch 1/4" on both sides of the marked line. Cut apart on the marked line to create two half-square triangles. Press seams open. Do not trim blocks at this time. Repeat with remaining squares to make a total of 32 half-square triangle blocks.


2. Make Quarter Square Triangle Blocks: Using a marking pen or a pencil, draw a diagonal line across the wrong side of all 6” colorful fabric squares. Place one 6" colorful fabric square and one untrimmed half-square triangle block (from step one) together, so that the line marked on the colorful fabric square and the seam on the half-square triangle block are perpendicular to one another. Stitch 1/4" on both sides of the marked line. Cut apart on the marked line to create two quarter-square triangle blocks. Press seams open.



Trim blocks to 5.5" square. To make sure the center of your block ends up in the center after trimming, line up the center seam intersection with the mark that's half the trim size, so in this case 2.75".


This method creates two blocks that match, but are not identical. To make laying out the quilt top easier, let's call these A blocks and B blocks.

Repeat with remaining squares and half-square triangle blocks to create 64 quarter-square triangle blocks.

Quilt Top Construction:

1. Arrange blocks into 8 rows of 8 blocks each, using the photo above as a guide. To create the secondary pattern with the black and white fabrics you'll need to alternate A and B blocks in each row. The odd numbered rows will start with an A block, the even numbered rows will start with a B block.


2. Sew blocks together in each row. Press seams in one direction, alternating direction every other row. Sew rows together, press as desired. Press top well from the right side.

Quilt Assembly and Finishing:

1. Backing: Cut backing yardage in half. Press. Trim off the selvedges and sew pieces together lengthwise. Press seam open.

2. Basting: Using masking or painter’s tape, tape the backing to a clean, hard surface, right side down. Spread out your batting on top of the backing. Smooth out any wrinkles. Carefully spread out your quilt top on top of the batting, right side up. Pin your top, I like to use curved safety pins, spacing the pins a few inches apart. Make sure that your pins are going through all three layers.

3. Quilting: Quilt as desired, by machine or by hand. Trim away excess batting and backing fabric.


4. Binding: Cut yardage listed for binding into 2.5” strips. Trim off selvedges and sew your strips together to form one long strip, press seams open. Fold in half lengthwise, pressing with your iron as you fold. Attach binding using your preferred method. For a detailed tutorial on attaching your binding to both sides by machine: Machine Quilt Binding Tutorial.

I hope you've enjoyed this tutorial! I have lots of other tutorials for everything from quilts, pillows, bags, and holiday items to informational series and techniques. Find all my tutorials here: Tutorials. My online shop is filled with patterns for quilts and bags. Find my patterns here: Jeni Baker Patterns

Tag me @jenib320 and use my hashtag #jenibaker on instagram if you make something from this tutorial!

Happy Quilting!