Baby Puff Quilt Tutorial

 If you're watching my Instagram, then you saw my recent post showing off my new puff quilt. It was a labor intensive process - I'm thinking it took me around 12 hours over the course of a month - but it was SO worth it! I love this thing. The best part is that I made it with almost all scraps from the remnant bin - the only thing I bought specifically for the quilt was the batting, which was on sale for a grand total of $5.59. Everything else was a random selection of remnants I'd picked up over the last year or so every time JoAnn's updated their remnant bin (which was every Thursday afternoon over the summer, so I hit it up often!).

Please note that A) this is literally the first tutorial I've ever made and B) I am probably the laziest quilter you've ever met. I tried to take good photos, but they likely will confuse you, and I realized while writing this that I didn't take photos of some of the most important parts (like the mitered corners on the binding, or closing the binding). I also don't try very hard when it comes to measuring and cutting, but hey, that's part of my scrappy quilter charm. Honestly, I don't even know how much fabric I used. I just eyeball everything and most of my projects are made from the remnant bin!

The first step for this quilt (and the most labor-intensive) is to cut all the squares. My finished quilt measured around 4 feet square (not exactly, I admit I didn't measure), which is the perfect size for a baby play mat. I was hoping it would turn out larger, but given all the puffs, I actually think this smaller size is better. 

I have 80 puffs; 8 rows of 10. I actually didn't measure how much fabric I used (not helpful, I know) because everything was scraps, but my scraps were all around 1 yard, and I had leftovers. In fact, I used the leftovers from the top squares of the puffs to back the puffs. So 8 yards will give you more than enough! I chose 8 different prints/fabric types, including quilt cotton, minky, minky dot, fleece, and flannel. Varying the textures and colors is great in a project like this because it gives baby more textures and colors to experience!

Start by cutting ten 5 inch squares from each print. Using your leftovers, cut 80 four inch squares. The 5 inch squares will be your puff tops and the 4 inch squares will be your backs. 

Now it's time to sew! 

The original tutorial I followed for making a puff quilt suggested that you sew and stuff each puff before sewing the rows together and building the quilt top.

I DO NOT suggest this. 

In the comment section of that tutorial, someone else suggested that you sew every puff completely (without leaving a hole for stuffing), and then cut a hole in the back of the puff. Sew the entire quilt top together, stuff from the back, and then hand stitch each hole closed.

I don't recommend that, either. It would be a heck of a lot easier/quicker to sew it all together that way, but I absolutely despise hand stitching and avoid it at all costs (even though my quilts would probably look nicer if I embraced it...). 

I recommend a hybrid approach. The problem with the original tutorial (stuffing all the puffs and then sewing them together) is that the puffs get in the way of the machine and make things very hard to sew together. I realized this was going to be very difficult after I'd stuffed 19 puffs. After that epiphany, I quit stuffing the puffs and came up with this alternative (which wasn't so bad).

Begin by sewing together your puff squares. Start by lining up one corner of a 5 inch square with one corner of a 4 inch square. Sew a little way down the edge (I think I'm supposed to tell you to use a quarter inch seam, or something, but honestly I just eyeball all my seams) before creating a pleat so that the next corner lines up. I didn't get a picture of this part (I should have), but you can kind of imagine the idea based off the picture of my completed puff, right? I did this by sewing about 1/3 of the way down the side and then stopping and lining up the next corner. I folded over the excess fabric in the middle to create a pleat, then sewed over the pleat. Repeat with the next two sides. On the final side, leave yourself about 3 inches to stuff the puff. This means you'll need to create your pleat for that side close to the corner, but that won't matter/show when your quilt is complete.

Once all your puffs are sewn (but not stuffed), lay them out in whatever pattern you want. I wanted mine random, but it would also look nice in some kind of organized pattern - it all depends on what fabrics you chose and what look you're going for. I wanted the scrappy look.

Now we're going to start sewing the rows and building the quilt top. Take your first row and sew all the squares together, making sure you keep the open side for stuffing at the top of the row. You don't want to accidentally sew the whole thing shut because you arranged your puffs upside down or sideways!

Once the row is sewn together, stuff each puff, but don't sew it closed yet. I used an approximate handful of stuffing for each puff; enough for some shape and firmness, but not so much that I couldn't squish the sides down to sew them closed.

Once all the puffs are stuffed, set that row aside and sew your next row together, making sure the open sides are at the top.

This next part can be a little tricky, depending on how fully stuffed your puffs are. Just go slow. This isn't the place to get over excited and rush.

Line the closed side of your unstuffed row up with the open side of your stuffed row. You can pin or clip the rows together, but I didn't. The puffs make it harder to clip. Sew the two rows together; this will close up the stuffed puffs and leave you a new row ready for stuffing. I found it was easier to sew with the stuffed puffs on top and the empty ones on the bottom; that way, I could squish the stuffing down easier, and the empty puffs slid across my machine easier than the stuffed ones. 

If you make a mistake and don't close a puff all the way, it's also easier to see that when the stuffed side is on top. In the event that happens, just backstitch until you get off your mistake and either cut your thread and restart (make sure you backstitch if you restart), or manipulate the fabric into place and keep going forward. Depending on how big my mistake was, I went back and forth between those two. Although I found that after a few rows, I quit making errors - so there's a learning curve, but it's a relatively small one.

Continue sewing rows and stuffing them until you've used up all your puffs. When you sew on the final row, stuff it, but don't sew it closed. You'll do that when you add your trim.

When I measured my final puff top, it was about 24 inches. I was using baby quilt batting, which is 45 inches wide, so I decided to add a 10 inch trim on every side of the quilt. It ended up being quite a bit shorter than the batting (which is 60 inches long). but I as I mentioned earlier, I think this is a good play mat size.

I cut four 10 by 45 inch strips of blue minky dot that I had leftover from another blanket I made. I started with the top row of puffs so that I could sew them closed. Using clips (I don't recommend pins because the puffs stick up so much), I attached the trim to the puffs, right sides together, leaving 10 inches on each side of the puffs. I then sewed straight across, closing those puffs. I still sewed with the puffs on top, which made it easier to ensure I got all the puffs closed.

For the next side, you have a couple choices. You could miter the corners, but since this was a scrappy quilt, I wanted something that was more reminiscent of a log cabin quilt block, so I went with an over/under structure. It's kind of hard to explain, but you can see my stitching if you look at the finished quilt top - this first side went over top the second side, which went over top the third side, and so on. So each piece of trim went over on one side and under on the other side - this was easier to sew together than a mitered corner, but it also changed up the look of the quilt a bit. So when I attached the second side, I made sure the first side laid on top of it and sewed straight across before cutting my thread and starting to sew the second side to the puffs.

Repeat this process for all 4 sides.

And now there you have it - your quilt top! At this point, things really start to feel complete. you see the light at the end of the quilting tunnel, and things get really exciting. 

When I got to this point, I laid out my quilt batting on the floor and spray basted a piece of unicorn fleece to it. This was my backing. I recommend spray basting just because it's so much faster than pin basting, but you can do whatever you prefer.

Because I knew it would be very hard to sew through the puffs, even just stitching in the ditch, I decided to quilt the fleece to the batting before sewing the quilt sandwich together. I did a totally shameful and lazy quilting job, nothing lined up, I think I folded the batting in a few places, and I can't sew a straight line to save my life. BUT the batting is firmly attached to the fleece, so I call that a win. If you're interested in free motion quilting, this would be a great time to practice it. That's why I didn't take a photo 🤣

Next, I spray basted the quilt top to the batting on the opposite side. To affix the quilt top to the backing/batting, I simply sewed all the way around the puffs, trying to sew as close to the puffs as possible. You can see this line on the back of the quilt, but because of the minky dot, the batting, and the puffs themselves, you can't really see it on the front of the quilt. It's just enough to hold the top to the backing. If you did some nice quilting on the backing, instead of sewing around the puffs, I would recommend (gasp) hand stitching in between some of the puffs. My grandmother used to always sew in little strips of yarn when she did things like this. You could also sew in little buttons that would show on the backing. But, remember this is most likely a baby play mat, and people won't really see the backing anyway.

At this point, you're practically finished. I (sort of) squared up the edges of the quilt to make attaching the binding easier. Mostly, I cut off the excess fleece and batting because my quilt top was a good bit smaller than your typical baby blanket.

You have choices with binding. You can use a wide satin or grosgrain ribbon (which is the fastest), you can use pre-made bias tape (which is fast but also the most expensive), or you can make your own bias tape (least expensive, most choice, but also the most time consuming). Because I'm cheap, I always make my own.

When I first started quilting, I was using my bias tape maker and making double fold bias tape, then trying to line up the edges on both sides and sew it together all at once. It never worked perfectly and I always ended up with wonky edges and random extra stitching where I'd made a mistake and lost the bias tape. But even so, it was less expensive and gave me more choice in binding than anything else. 

In spring of 2020, I got a Craftsy membership, and one of the videos I watched changed how I bind quilts forever! Remember I said I'm lazy, right? Well lots of quilters bind their quilts by sewing the binding to the front with a machine and finishing it off by hand stitching the back closed, so that the only stitches you see are the pretty ones on the front that you put effort into. 

But I hate hand stitching, remember?? 

I found a Craftsy video showing you how to bind a quilt entirely with a machine, and it was easier than I thought! I will explain it here, but I highly recommend a Craftsy membership and that you watch the Mastering in Minutes: Binding Quilts class!!

Start by making single fold bias tape (which again makes this cheaper, because you use less fabric than if you made double fold). I like thin quilt bindings, so I cut 3 inch strips that I fold in half for a 1.5 inch bias tape, which becomes more like a half inch binding when it's all done. I cut 5 strips from a yard of 45 inch wide pink symphony broadcloth (which was on sale, obviously); I had just the right amount of binding. 

Sew the strips together with the ends at an angle; this will be sturdier in your finished quilt, but the diagonal lines also aren't so obvious to the eye. I was really, really lazy and continued using my black thread instead of using a matching pink thread - I don't recommend this, especially with a thin fabric like symphony broadcloth. After sewing all the strips together, fold them in half and press.

To attach the binding, make sure you are working on the BACK of your quilt first. This will put the pretty, finished edge on the front. The first time I used this method, I wasn't paying attention and sewed the whole thing onto the front. Rookie move!

Line up the raw edge of your binding about 1/4 inch from the edge of your quilt. You want it close enough that you can flip the finished edge over the quilt, but not so close that you have more binding on the front than on the back. Leave yourself about 6 inches of excess binding, unsewn, at the beginning and end of your binding (you'll blend them together later). Sew your binding all the way around. When you get to the end of your binding, Fold the longer end into a diagonal end, so now raw edge is showing. Then simply tuck the shorter end into the longer end and sew across the raw edge. This effectively closes your binding. The loose finished edge will get sewn down on the front, so it won't pop out.

To miter the corners, fold your binding off the edge of the quilt and then back towards the next side. When you sew the first side, sew all the way down the binding until you're about 1/4 inch away from the edge, then flip and start sewing 1/4 inch away from the folded fabric. This is much easier to watch on a video than in pictures or read, so again, I refer to the Craftsy class.

Once you've sewn all the way around on the back, you'll need to flip your quilt over and sew the front. I use a LOT of clips here to keep the binding in place. Fold the binding over to the front side (you'll probably need to do some seam trimming before it works nicely) and clip it down, trying to line up the finished edge with the seam from the back side. You have to fold and manipulate and tuck the mitered corners on the front to keep the mitered look, but you should have a lovely mitered corner on the back when you flip it.

Going slowly, top stitch all the way around over the finished edge of your binding, using your finger to feel for the seam from the back underneath the binding. Try to sew right over that same seam - this will put the seam on the back in the same spot, so you don't see two distinct seams on the back. If you have the patience (I don't, especially this close to the end of a project) and your machine can do it, a decorative stitch looks wonderful here and will hide any off track bits on the back.

And THAT'S IT! You have your finished puff quilt! I'd love to see what you made, if you post photos in the comments below!!