Simple Harmony Baby Quilt Tutorial

Welcome to this FREE tutorial with Michael Miller Fabrics 2022 Basics Blog Hop!!!

For this tutorial, I used Coco Collection. This collection has 50 beautiful colors: it consists of 5 gradients in 10 color stories.

Have you ever made a baby quilt? What about a quick and easy baby quilt, that is versatile and fun to play with many shades of colors? Simple Harmony is that quilt!!! This is the perfect project to make over the weekend for that quick gift, or if you have more than one to make, you’ll probably be able to finish a couple in one week!

The first quilt I’ve ever sold was a Simple Harmony Baby Quilt. At the time (2020) I had made only 2 quilts ever, and someone asked me if I would make a baby quilt, so I thought of something easy and original, and that’s how I designed – but haven’t written a pattern for it until now. Today, I’m happy to share with you an actual pattern for my first quilt design!!!

I am sure you have seen many quilts similar to this one, all squares, one white, one color, they’re pretty common, BUT this one follows my own color placement, which makes it my own pattern and design!! Using this tutorial, you can create your own placement of colors too, adjusting the number of squares for each color you use, of course. It’s pretty fun! So, let’s get started!

Initial instructions:

*Finished size is 33.5″ x 42.5″.

*Seam allowance is 1/4″ unless otherwise noted.

*WOF means width of fabric.

*Assume 44″ WOF.

*Press all seams open.

Fabric Requirements:

Color 1 (c1) Background ———- 3/4yd

Color 2 (c2) ———- 1/4yd

Color 3 (c3) ———- 1/4yd

Color 4 (c4) ———- 1/4yd

Color 5 (c5) ———- 1/4yd

Backing ———- 1yd (36″ x 44″)***

Batting ———- 34″ x 44″***

Binding ———- 1/3yd

***It’s possible to quilt with less than 2″ extra margin for backing fabric and batting, but if you prefer to have more room, or if you will add heavy quilting, add 1yd for backing fabric and batting requirement.

I used: Backing: CX9316_Sand; Binding: CX9316_Mocha; c2: CX9316_Orange; c3: CX9316_Marigold; c4: CX9316_Tangerine; c5: CX9316_Marmalade. For c1 (background) I used White Cotton Couture.

Cutting Instructions:

c1 (background): Cut (7) strips 3 1/2″ x WOF; sub-cut (77) 3 1/2″ squares.

c2, c3 and c4: For each color cut (2) strips 3 1/2″ x WOF; sub-cut (21) 3 1/2″ squares.

c5: Cut (2) strips 3 1/2″ x WOF; sub-cut (14) 3 1/2″ squares.

Binding: Cut (4) strips 2 1/2″ x WOF.

Prepare the binding:

I’ve known people that prepare the binding at the end of quilting the quilt, and some others that do it in the beginning, right after cutting all fabrics. What do you prefer? There’s no rule to it, you may choose to prepare whenever you find it convenient. When I am working with a planned quilt like this one, and specifically one fabric collection, then I cut and prepare it all in the beginning, if not, I like to choose the binding fabric at the end, so I can see what matches better and then I know it will wrap the project well!

To make the binding, join the ends of two strips together on the bias, facing right sides together, if needed, draw a diagonal line (as in the picture) to better guide yourself when you head to the sewing machine. Keep on joining the strips to form one long strip. Each strip sewn on both sides will lose 5″ total from its length, if sewn on one of the sides, it will lose 2.5″ – which is the extent of the seam made diagonally on the bias.

When finished joining the strips, fold the strip in half, and press all along.

For the (4) strips sewn, you should now have an approximately 166″ long strip. The quilt measures approximately 152″ all around, which is more than enough to cover the binding requirements.

All set with the binding, let’s start sewing the squares!

Sewing Instructions:

Sew one white square with one color square.

I suggest that you set each row separately (there are 11 vertical rows in this quilt). Each row is formed by background-color + c2, background-color + c3, background-color + c4 and background-color + c5.

Each row has 7 pairs of the same colors that will be sewn vertically. As the picture below shows, after sewing one background square to each color, set the piles of each color in the order of the quilt rows for quicker and easier sewing. And oh, I almost forgot to mention, chain piecing is highly recommended here!!!

As seen above, there are (3) rows of background + c2, (3) rows of background + c3, (3) rows of background + c4 and (2) rows of background + c5.

Sew each row vertically, always alternating the colors, so the same color will never touch.

Sew the rows together in order: c2 + c3 + c4+ c5 + c2 + c3 + c4 + c5 + c2 + c3 + c4.

After finishing the quilt top, baste using the method of your preference. I love spray basting as it is quicker and the fabric is absolutely flat on the front and back for pucker-free quilting.

I love to quilt using straight lines as they’re easy to sew and they give a nice finish to any quilt design. I am using 1/2″ spacing for this one.

After the quilting is done, I squared it (trimmed all around) and now it’s time to bind it!!! This is my favorite part of the process as it means I am about to finish, and the framing that the binding provides always makes my eyes shine!