Steph's Sew Sew Life: Baby Boy Quilt using Speedy Baby 2 Pattern Tutorial and Free Pattern

Speedy Baby 2 Pattern from Deslynn Mecham on the Quilt Taffy Blog

A good friend of mine was pregnant with her new baby boy. I was dying to use this ducky fabric I had in my stash...now to find complimentary charm squares and borders for this special gift. I could not find any charm squares that I liked to match the centerpiece of this quilt. So I found 8 fabrics that went well with the center square and decided to cut my own 5" charm squares. 32 are needed for this quilt so I cut 4, 5" squares out of each fabric.

Jennifer, her husband and children are wonderful people and I have known Jennifer for 25 years. We went to school together and were in the Gold Pride Marching/Concert band. We even worked together at a little accessory store when her oldest boys were just babies. So you can understand years later when she is having this miracle baby boy I was so excited to make him a special quilt.

Items needed:
1/4 yard of 8 different fabrics for 5" charm squares or a 32 pack of charm squares
1 yard for inner border
1 yard for second border
2 yards for back
thread for piecing blocks
thread for quilting
1 fat quarter for center - will cut 16.5" square
1/2 yard for double fold binding
crib size Warm & Natural batting

Tools needed:
If cutting charms from yardage use a 5" square template. Omnigrid Grip 5" square ruler template was used for this project.
cutting mat
rotary cutter
ruler(s)
sewing machine
snipping scissors

Instructions:
If not using a charm pack, start with cutting 32 - 5" squares
Then cut the fat quarter to a 16.5" square
For inner border cut 3 - 6" x wof strips. Cut 2 strips to measure 6x16.5" (from one strip). Cut 2 strips to measure 6x27.5"
For second border cut 4 - 5" x wof strips. Cut 4 strips to measure 5"x36.5"
Binding fabric cut 5 - 2.5" x wof strips

Sewing:
With the center square sew a 16.5" inner border strip to each side of the square. Press seam to border fabric. Now sew the 27.5" inner border fabric to the top and bottom of the center square. Press seam to border fabric.

Make 2 rows of 6 charms each, this will be used as the charm square border. Again press all seams in one direction. Add each row to the sides of the center square with the inner border. Press seams. Now make 2 rows of 8 charms each. Add these to the top and bottom of your center piece.

For the second border add 36.5" strips to each side of the charm border of the center of the quilt. With the additional two second border strips sew a charm square on to each end. Then sew one strip to the top and one to the bottom. Make sure to press all seams.

Piece the back as needed to have a large enough piece to be slightly larger than the quilt top for the sandwiching and quilting.

Sandwich the quilt top, batting and quilt bottom. Baste/pin very well.

The fun part - quilting. Quilt as desired. I was inspired by all the squares to quilt squares starting with the center block. Began with a 2" square in the center then continued sewing larger squares around it at a 2" interval until the entire center and first border were quilted. For the charm squares I quilted each charm with 3 squares an inch apart. For the second border quilted around the seam and then every 2 inches again until 3 squares were visible.

Once the quilting is complete, trim/square up the quilt. Time to bind. Take your binding strip (do a double fold bind strip) and pin to quilt. Sew binding.