Striped Pinwheel Baby Quilt and Free Pattern

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I designed this Striped Pinwheel Baby Quilt to be cheerful and colourful. Ryan’s brother and sister-in-law had a baby in June, and I wanted to sew a little something for my brand new nephew! I used a mix of coloured quilting cotton patterns on a light neutral background.

The Pinwheel Baby Quilt is 34″ x 40″ (~86 cm x 101.5 cm). It is based on triangles, so a square or triangle template will help you cut out evenly-sized pieces. I debated whether or not to try machine quilting this baby quilt, but in the end I hand quilted it. I had previously hand quilted my own queen-size starburst quilt and it took ages, so the hand quilting on this one seemed to be a breeze!

Striped Pinwheel Baby Quilt

Supplies

Cutting mat

Rotary cutter

Thread to match the colours of your fabric

Fabric for the Quilt Top:

White/Neutral: ~3/4 yard

Green: ~3/8 yard

Pink: ~3/8 yard

Blue: ~3/8 yard

Yellow: ~3/8 yard

Fabric for the Quilt Backing:

White/Neutral: 1 1/2 yards

Fabric for the Border and Binding:

I had enough remaining green fabric to cut two-inch strips that I used to bind the quilt.

34″ x 40″ piece of batting

Directions

1. Cut out the following number of 4-inch square pieces of fabric:
   • 16 pink
   • 16 green
   • 14 blue
   • 14 yellow
   • 60 white
2. Cut each square diagonally into triangles.
3. Arrange and pin each colourful triangle, right sides together, with one white triangle. Stitch and press open.
4. Arrange and pin the half-coloured squares, right sides together, one row at a time, following the colour pattern in the first photo.
5. Stitch the squares into rows and press.
6. Continue joining squares into strips, row by row. Press.
7. Once all 12 rows are completed, arrange and pin the rows, right sides together, following the pattern in the first photo.
8. Stitch the rows together and press open. You should now have the finished quilt top.
9. Sandwich the quilt batting with the quilt top and backing piece of white fabric. Baste the layers together and quilt around each square by hand or machine. If you are quilting by hand, use a quilting hoop to keep everything straight.
10. Cut the remaining green fabric into 2″-strips. Join strips together diagonally. Bind using your favourite method – here is the binding method I used.

I like to add my initials and the year I made the item – in this case 2016!