original recipe - united notionsoriginal recipe can be found at finger press your seam open. it...

Original Recipe can be found at www.modabakeshop.com

Original Recipe

Snug as a Bug Baby Quilt by Melissa Corry

Hello, it's me... Melissa Corry. I am so excited about this adorable baby quilt tutorial. This easy quilt goes together super fast and throws a little wonky in with the stacked coins concept. The applique is the perfect finish to just cute it up. Do you have a little bug in your life that needs the Snug as a Bug Quilt? If so, just click on over to Burgundy Buttons where Leah has created an exclusive Snug as a Bug Quilt Kit {http://bit.ly/ouHocN} at a great discounted price! Hurry, supplies are limited.

And of course, if you have any questions you can reach me at happyquiltingmelissa (at) gmail (dot) com. And feel free to stop by my stomping grounds {happyquiltingmelissa.blogspot.com} to see what I am up to. I love visitors. Happy Quilting!!!


QUILT TOP 2 Oops-a-Daisy Charm Packs by Keiki 1 1/4 Yards Bella Solid White Heat N Bond cut into 5" squares.

BINDING 1/2 Yard of your choice of a Coordinating Binding Print - I used 32485-11 BACKING 1 1/4 Yard of your choice of Coordinating Backing Print -I used 32480-12

STEP 1 - CUTTING

We will get started with cutting the sashing needed from our white yardage. Layout your white yardage along your mat, aligning the folded edge along the 0 Horizontal line of your mat. Align your ruler along the last line of your mat and trim a straight edge. Measure in 5", align your ruler along the mark on the top and bottom of your mat and cut. Without moving your fabric, slide your ruler over another 5" and cut and continue repeating until you have four 5" strips. Set your remaining yardage aside. Trim the selvage edge off of the top of the strips.

Layout the remaining yardage the same as before (aligning your last cut edge along the straight edge of your mat). Using the same method, cut 5 strips that are 1 1/2" wide. Set your remaining yardage aside and don't move your fabric strips. Now we are going to subcut those 5 strips horizontally. Align your ruler along the horizontal mat line at 16 1/2 inches. If you don't have a 16 1/2" line on your mat, line your 1/2 mark on your ruler with the 16" line on your mat. This should make your ruler edge now at 16 1/2". Cut across all 5 strips. When unfolded you will have five 33" x 1 1/2" strips. Now slide your ruler up the 21 1/2" line and align as directed before and cut. This will give you an additional ten 5"x1 1/2" strips.


Lastly, we need to cut a whole stack of 1 1/2" x 5" strips. So for the last time, align your remaining white yardage along the side of your mat. The amount of sashing will vary depending on the desired "wonkiness" but I found about 9 strips to be just right. Cut 9 more 1 1/2" strips and set the remaining yardage aside for scrap. Now we need to subcut those 9 strips into 5" pieces. The easiest way to do this is to cut along the horizontal 21" line. This will give you a starting point and trim the selvage edge. Now measure down 5" to the 16" horizontal line, align your ruler and cut. Continue this process cutting every 5" down to the 1" line. You should now have an additional 64 1 1/2" x 5" strips.

Now that the sashing is done, we can move onto cutting up your charm pack. Once again, the exact amount of pieces needed will vary depending on your wonkiness but I found 44 charms to be just about right. I started by removing the doubles in my 2 charm packs and pulling aside any prints in particular that I wanted to use for applique. Then I selected 37 random charms.

Now cutting the charms is the fun part. There is no set measurement. You can make it as wonky as you like. I used measurements varying from 1 1/2" down to 3 1/2" down and everything in between. I didn't want to go smaller than the sashing so that is why I stuck to those measurements but you can do what you like. Pick a size for that particular charm pack, measure down (or up, it really doesn't matter) that said measurement and cut. Switch it up within your charms so that you end up with a stack of completely different sized charms. (I found while sewing that some of my charms ended up just being a stem or something that I didn't necessarily like the look of... in those cases I would set that aside and just cut a new charm to replace it :)

And that is the entire cutting. To review, you should have four 5" x WOF Strips, five 1 1/2" x 33" strips, 74ish 1 1/2" x 5" strips, and 74ish 1 1/2" to 3 1/2" x 5" charms. Are you there? Great, lets move on :)

STEP 2 - MAKING THE ROWS

Now that everything is cut, you are ready to start sewing. Grab a cut charm piece and a white 1 1/2" x 5" sashing piece. Align them right sides together along the top or bottom (either way works). You will want to watch here that if you have a directional print you are aligning them all the same direction. So always add sashing on either the top or bottom :) Sew a 1/4" seam along your aligned edge.


Just keep aligning your pieces and chain stitching them. Meaning, don't cut your threads between each pieced set; just keep feeding them through your machine until you have sewn all 74ish sets together.

Now you have a large pile of pieced sets. Go ahead now and clip your threads between each pieced set. You can press them now but it isn't necessary. I just finger press for a while :)

Now you are ready to start sewing your rows together. You will be repeating the following process 6 times to make 6 rows. (Or if you are confident, you can chain stitch 6 sets to make all 6 rows as once :) Grab 2 pieced sets. (try not to worry to much about what you grab, just keep it random :) Align them as follows so that the white sashing is next to a charm print. This is where I do a little finger pressing to make it easier to work with my pieces.

Lay the top pieced set onto the bottom pieced set with right sides together and then sew a 1/4" seam along the edge.


Finger press your seam open. It should look like the bottom. Now grab another pieced set, you are going to add this the same was as before.

Lay your pieced set onto your now sewn together pieced sets with right sides together. Sew a 1/4" seam along the edge. Now repeat, repeat, repeat :)

Continue adding pieced sets until your strip measures more than 33" when laid out. Make sure to pull it tight when you measure since you haven't been pressing.

When you reach more than 33" you are ready to press :) I found it easiest to press my white edges out :) Press as you are most comfortable :) Now, just one more trim. Align the edge of your strip along the 0 vertical line of your mat. Now you are going to trim your strip down to 32". Make sure when trimming this that you are trimming through a charm block. You want to have a charm strip, and not a sashing strip, at the top and bottom of your strip. If you are going to be cutting through a sashing, trim the top a bit to adjust. (If you didn't chain stitch, repeat the process 5 more times so you have 6 rows total).


STEP 3 - SEWING THE ROWS TOGETHER Grab your 6 pieced rows and your five 33" sashings and lay them out as follows. Play around with your row alignment until you have a look that is pleasing to the eye.

We will start with sewing the sashings onto the pieced rows. Lay your 5 sashings onto the 5 rows to the left of the sashings. No need to pin, you can just align as you go. Sew a 1/4" seam down the aligned sides, trim the excess sashing and press.

Now that your sashings are attached you are ready to start sewing your rows together (this is just like piecing the rows but on a much larger scale). Lay your first row onto your second row aligning the edge. This time you will want to pin to make sure your tops and bottoms are aligned properly. Sew a 1/4 seam along your pinned edge (and remember to remove pins as you sew. Press your seam.

Lay your third row onto your new sewn together first and second row. Pin to align the edges, sew a 1/4" seam along the pinned edge and press. Continue this process until you have sewn all of your rows together :)


STEP 4 - ADDING BORDERS You will start with the top and bottom border. As these are WOF they will be a little long but no worries.

Lay your top and borders onto the top and bottom of your quilt top and align the edges. Once again, no need to pin, just align as you sew. Sew a 1/4" seam along the edge.

Now, using your quilt as a guide, trim the excess sashing. (Make sure your quilt is completely flat when doing this so you get a nice straight edge). Press your seams.

Add the side borders. You will use the same method that you used to add the top and bottom border.


And your piecing is complete!! Isn't it just adorable? Now onto making it super cute with some applique :) (Note . . . If you are not a fan of applique you can skip the next step and finish your quilt top like this :)

STEP 5 - ADDING APPLIQUE

Grab the charms that you set aside earlier for applique. Using the manufacture's directions, iron a 5" square of Heat N Bond to the wrong side of your charm square. Now using the templates at the bottom of this tutorial, trace the desired applique onto the paper side of the Heat n Bond. (Make sure to do the letters backwards, as you can see, I forgot that when I took this picture :). Cut out the traced applique. Repeat this process until you have cut out all of your applique pieces.

Play with the layout of your applique until you get a design you like. This is my layout. Once you have a layout you like, it is best to take a picture to refer to as you will be moving your quilt around to iron it and so will have to replace your applique.

I like to do one set of applique at a time. This just keeps it from starting to come off when you are moving the fabric around so much in your machine while stitching it :) I started with the letters. I use my ruler as a guide to make sure that I am aligning them straight :) Once again, using the manufacturer's directions, press your applique to your quilt top fusing it to the top.


Stitch around your applique to secure it. I choose to use brown thread for my applique and did a blanket stitch around the entire applique.

In the center details, I did a very close zig-zag stitch to give the details dimension.

Repeat this process until you have secured all of your applique :) And your quilt top is done!!

STEP 6 - FINISHING YOUR QUILT

Now to finish, you just quilt and bind. I know, I make it sound so easy. But it is a great size to start on

if you are doing free motion quilting for the first time. I choose to quilt mine in an all over free

motion daisy and loops design. There are tons and tons of tutorials out there on free motion quilting.

Just Google it and practice :) Cut your binding fabric into five 2 1/2" strips to make your binding roll.

If you have never done a binding before there is a great tutorial here on how to

bind {modabakeshop.com/2010/08/binding-with-jelly-roll.html}


And you are done! I would love it if you went over to my Happy Quilting Tutorial's Flickr page to upload your quilt. I just can't wait to see all of these adorable quilts and would love to feature your project on my blog some time :)

One super adorable 41 x 41 baby quilt ready to be loved by a little one in your life :)

Thank you to my adorable niece for being such a perfect little model and to her mom for helping me during the pictures :)

Melissa Corry {happyquiltingmelissa.blogspot.com}

original recipe - united notionsoriginal recipe can be found at finger press your seam open. it...

Documents