Jolly Bars – Baby Quilt Tutorial

Today I’m sharing a really fun and simple free tutorial for a baby quilt using Jolly Bars – a bundle of 5″ x 10″ Moda pre-cuts that are exclusive to the Fat Quarter Shop. I’m using The Boat House collection, coming soon from Sweetwater for Moda.

 This project makes a 40″ x 42″ quilt – perfect for a fun baby or crib quilt. I’m calling this design, “Stick-Shift.”

 Fabric requirements:

• 30 Jolly Bars (5″ x 10″ rectangles)
• 30 white charm squares (5″ x 5″)
• 1 1/4 yard backing. (If you’re careful, the width of the fabric -selvage to selvage – should be wide enough for this quilt. If you’d like more wiggle room, get 2 yards and piece a back.)
• 3/8 yard fabric for binding

I chose the darkest prints from the Jolly Bar bundle because I wanted to use the fabrics that would have the most contrast with the white squares. You could also cut some of the light prints into 5″ x 5″ squares and use them in place of some of the white squares.

Sew a white square to the end of the 30 5″ x 10″ rectangles. Just chain them through and it will go really quickly! Press seams toward the print fabric. Cut each new unit into two 2 1/2″ x 14 1/2″ strips. (See above)

Alternating directions, layout three rows of 20 of these units. (Here is what one row would look like. I suggest laying out all three rows so that you can play with fabric placement.)

Sew strip units together. When adding a new unit, use the previous units as a guide to match up the seams on the new addition. This will help keep your row straight.

Press the seams to the right on the first and third rows and to the left on the second row. This will help you match up seams by nesting the seam allowances when you sew the rows together.

Mine is only a quilt-top at the moment. I’ll add pictures as soon as it’s quilted and bound. I’m thinking some simple straight lines to accentuate the long, skinny strips.

Jolly Bars would also be perfect with this easy bricks quilt  tutorial I made for the Moda Bake Shop a few years ago: