How to Make A Minky Backed Baby Quilt

Handmade quilts are a great way to welcome a new baby! They add so much to a nursery and become heirlooms when baby grows up, and have practical applications for cuddling, car blankets and playmats. A Minky backed quilt does all of this with the added benefit of a baby-soft side.

Working with Minky can be tricky sometimes because of the slippery quality of the fabric and the inherent stretch, but using spray basting helps to make this Minky-backed patchwork quilt easy. And this pattern uses a Minky self-binding to make finishing faster.

Finished quilt size: 30″ x 40″

All seam allowances are 1/4″

Quilt top pattern is a random patchwork of 6 squares by 8 squares

Materials:

• Rotary cutter, ruler and mat
• 48 pre-cut 5 1/2″ x 5 1/2″ squares of 100% cotton quilting fabric for quilt top (I cut out my squares from three different yelp print fabrics and four different pink print fabrics to create a slightly random pattern)
• 1 1/4 yards coordinating Minky fabric for quilt back
• Baby quilt sized cotton batting 34″ x 45″ (such as the Warm and White Craft Size batting)
• Temporary adhesive/repositionable spray basting (such as Spray N’ Bond)

Before beginning pre-wash all your fabrics and the cotton batting.

How to sew the Minky Backed Baby Quilt:

Arrange your squares in a pattern 6 squares across and 8 squares down until you achieve a pattern you like. Then stack your squares row-by-row so that the square at the far left is on top, followed by the subsequent squares in your row. Pin these stacks and arrange them in order from your top row to your bottom row.

You are ready to sew! Take the first two squares off your first stack and place them right sides together.

Join the squares by sewing down the right side with a ¼” seam allowance. No need to backstitch as the threads will be secured when the rows are sewn together.

Open out your first two squares and lay the third square right sides together over the second square in the row. Join the squares by sewing down the right side with a ¼” seam allowance.

Repeat until you’ve sewn together all your squares in your first row.

Sew together your subsequent rows in the same manner.

Iron all seam allowances to one side.

Now you will stitch your rows together. Start with the top two rows and lay those right sides together matching the raw edges on either end and aligning the seams between the squares. If you find things aren’t lining up exactly you can stretch the fabric and ease it a bit. Stitch the rows together along the adjoining edges using a ¼” seam allowance.

Lay the third row over the second, right sides together. Pin and stitch as you did with the first two rows.

Repeat until all the rows have been stitched together. Press the seam allowances to one side.

You have finished your quilt top! Now we’ll sandwich the batting between the top and the minky back.

Iron your batting to smooth out any wrinkles. Lay it on a large flat surface, such as the floor, and apply spray basting following the manufacturer’s instructions. You’ll want to keep the spray a few inches from the edge of the batting or use a drop cloth behind it to avoid spraying your work surface. Before the spray dries, lay your Minky on top of the batting with the right side up. Because the spray is repositionable you can correct any wrinkles until the Minky is lying smoothly on top of the batting.

Flip the Minky-backed batting over and apply the spray basting to the other side of the batting. Lay the quilt top over the batting and smooth out any wrinkles. Be sure you have extra batting around all the edges. We’ll trim this later and use the excess for the binding. To make certain your layers won’t slip or stretch while quilting you can add pins to hold this “sandwich” in place as well.

Now it’s time to machine quilt. We’ll stitch in the “ditch” between each square to create a grid pattern the size of the quilt squares, starting with the center vertical and horizontal quilting lines. Roll one side of the quilt so you can easily fit it to the right of your BERNINA machine’s presser foot. Starting at the top of the quilt, between squares three and four, you will stitch down the ditch crossing all the rows vertically to the bottom of the quilt. Backstitch to secure your thread.

Next quilt the horizontal line between rows four and five. Repeat working out from the center horizontal and vertical lines until you have stitches on top of every seam on your quilt top.

Now it’s time to trim the excess batting and Minky backing. Using a ruler and rotary cutter, trim the excess to 1″ from the quilt top on all sides.

To create a self-binding, fold the 1″ margin of Minky and batting by about 3/8″ towards the quilt top. Then fold again so that the Minky overlaps the quilt top by about 3/8″.

Pin well along all sides of the quilt.

To miter the corners of the binding, trim the excess batting across the corner and fold in the Minky in.

Then adjust the binding folds on the perpendicular sides to create a neat corner.

Stitch all the way around the binding as close as possible to the folded edge. Use a needle and thread to secure the mitered corners with a few stitches hidden in the folds.

Wash your quilt and gift wrap it for a new baby!