A Self Binding Baby Quilt

My cousin recently gave birth to a beautiful little girl and I just knew that I had to make a quilt to celebrate her arrival. I got to work picking some fun prints to throw together. I decided to keep the piecing simple by using a simple square patchwork and outlining it with a border. 

I was loving the way it turned out but I found myself wishing that there was something more to it. So before I basted it I decided to add a little applique and embroidery. I drew out a large monogram letter and began hand appliqueing it to the quilt. 

I know this would have been much quicker to do at the machine but as I am nearing the end of my own pregnancy, sometimes it is nice to prop up comfortably on the couch and just work with my hands. Plus, I really want to continue to improve my hand applique. 

Once the letter was on I found that it just didn't pop as much as I had hoped. So I decided to add a blanket stitch all around the edges with some black embroidery floss.

Now it popped off the quilt beautifully! Some hot pink embroidery floss stem stitched in the applique letter was perfect for personalizing this quilt. 

Now the quilt was ready to be basted and quilted. I laid it out on my dining room table and got to work. 

Once it was all quilted I decided it was time to try yet another new method, self-binding! After all, 2014 is my year of learning. I laid the quilt out on the floor and trimmed the batting down so it was flush with the quilt top. I then trimmed all the side of the backing to be one inch wider on each side of the quilt top. I then folded the overhang of backing in half once and then in half again and pinned to the top of the quilt. 

When I reached my first corner I folded the corner in to form a 45 degree angle. 

Then I proceeded to fold the side in half. 

And then folded it over on top of the quilt top and pinned it down. 

You will notice that I used quite a lot of pins. My backing for this quilt was a dimple dot minky fabric which is very slippery so I wanted to be sure that everything was pinned down extra well. That being said, I am not quite sure that I would use this method again with a minky backing. 

Then I took the quilt back to my sewing machine and began stitching the binding down fairly close to the inner edge.

Speaking of stitching down multiple layers of minky . . . thank goodness for my walking foot! During all of the quilting and the binding it kept everything unbelievably even and smooth. So once my binding was secured all the way around I went back around with a second line of stitching closer to the outside edge of the binding. This was just to be sure that it would be extra secure to hold up to all of the washing that I know baby blankets have to endure. 

And with that, the quilt was finished! 

Until next time . . . happy quilting!