EnjoyThis Free Baby & Doll Medallion Quilt Pattern
This page gives the cutting, assembling and quilting instructions for the doll and baby medallion quilts. If you didn't come from Doll & Baby Medallion Quilts go there for the introduction to this pattern including history and techniques that were used for this quilt during the early 1800s.
estimated yardage: You will need a fat quarter of each fabric except your feature center fabric. I suggest you get 2/3 of a yard of the feature fabric. That gives you enough to fussy cut for the center and corners and you will probably have enough to back the quilt as well.
cutting instructions for the 19"x19" doll quilt
Your feature fabric needs to be a toile or other large print.
Feature fabric:
Cut one large square 10½" by 10½" for the center.
Wait to cut 2 or 4 smaller squares. (2 if you are making the 4 poster bed quilt) When the pieced and plain borders are sewn together measure the width then use that measurement to make the corner squares. Or you could cut it 5" then when you go to attach it cut it down slightly if needed.
Plain borders:
Cut the wider border fabric into four 10½" by 2½" strips.
Cut the narrow border fabric into eight 10½" by 1" strips.
Pieced border:
Cut eight fabric pieces into 2" by 2½" rectangles.
Cut twelve contrasting fabric pieces into 2" by 2½" rectangles.
Estimated yardage for the rectangle crib quilt.
The square quilt will take slightly less length with some fabric.
Cutting instructions for the 39"x39" crib quilt.
(the square crib quilt has one more border than the doll quilt)
Your feature fabric needs to be a toile or other large print.
Feature fabric:
Cut one large square 19½" by 19½" for the center.
Cut 4 smaller squares 6½" by 6½" for the corners.
Plain borders:
Cut inner border fabric into four strips
Two shorter ones 4½" by 19½"
Two shorter ones 4½" by 27½"
Cut the narrow border fabric into eight 27½" by 1" strips.
Cut the outer border fabric into four 27½" by 3½" strips.
Pieced border:
Cut sixteen fabric pieces into 2½" by 3½" rectangles.
Cut twenty contrasting fabric pieces into 2½" by 3½" rectangles.
If you want to do a four patch in each corner of the crib quilt instead of the solid block cut the blocks for the four patches 3½" by 3½".
Cutting instructions for the 39"x45" crib quilt.
All you have to do to make the crib quilt longer is to add 6" to all the lengths. Then cut 4 more 2½" by 3½" rectangles, two of each fabric. These will lengthen the sides by 2 on each side.
Start by sewing the pieced strip. Then check the length. If it's longer or shorter than the above measurements adjust them accordingly. Some of us sew our seams slightly wider or narrower so it's worth checking.
If you are making a crib quilt your next step would be to add the innermost border. The doll quilt does not have this border.
Now sew together the rest of each of the 4 borders. Put the narrow strips on each side of the pieced border then add the outer border. Do not attach them to the quilt yet.
Next attach the side borders to the quilt.
Then attach the large squares to the top and bottom borders.
Finally add the top and bottom borders to the quilt.
Use a fairly thin batting. These quilt were made for decoration, not warmth. I used a plain light tan backing. I was tempted to use the toile on the back but realized imported fabric would have been far too expensive to be used on the back of a quilt.
There are many ways you could quilt your project. I chose to hand quilt, something I rarely take the time to do but I wanted to try the old way with my small doll quilt. I used a cup to mark the quilting lines. I got the idea from looking at the quilting on a late 1700s whole cloth wool quilt. This would be a utilitarian style quilting pattern.
Another way a quilt might have been quilted during this period is in a diaginoal grid. The stitching lines would have been about 3/4 of an inch apart. To the right is an illustration of this quilting pattern.
But if you want to make the quilt fancy you can use a number of lovely quilting patterns. Feathers were popular as well as floral, fruit and other motifs from nature. Get out your stencils or design your own. You can make the quilting as fancy as you wish.
Of course at this early time the quilting would have been by hand but you can do lovely machine quilting to give the look of this period.
Cut your binding in one inch strips. Sew them to the front then hand turn the binding to the back. Hand stitch making the binding width less then 1/4 inch. Women of this time were proud of thier ability to make a narrow binding. Also these narrow bindings took very little of the fabric that cost so dearly.
Go to the PRINTABLE VERSION OF BABY AND DOLL MEDALLION QUILTS if you want an easy way to print out this free quilt pattern.
