Hi friends! It’s Alyssa from Hark Quilts. I’m so excited to share with you this crib quilt (and an easy tutorial!) that I made from this lovely new collection, Wild and Free by Gracey Larson for Riley Blake Designs. This collection features prints with state flowers with the name of the state and flower, sprigs of flowers and leaves, small winged insect and polka dots, an adorable irregular grid, and fluffy white clouds on a colored background. It’s all is dreamy, to say the least!
Below you will find a quick tutorial for this trip around the world crib sized quilt. If you haven’t made one of these type of quilts yet, take this is your sign! Trip around the world quilts are so easy and so quick and always look more complex than they are. Instead of cutting and assembling a ton of squares, all you have to do is sew some strips, cut them to size, and then assemble the rows. Super easy! Final dimensions for this quilt are crib size at 36″ x 44″.
Fabric Requirements
- 10 fabrics – 1/4 yard each
- 40″ x 48″ for batting (this provides an extra 2″ on all sides)
- 1 1/4 yard for backing
- 1/3 yd for binding (2 1/4 inch double fold)
Final dimensions are 36″ x 44″.
Below are the fabrics I chose for this quilt top (list of SKUs included at the end of this post).
But first! Can we just chat about how DARLING this collection is?? The main fabric with the state flowers is definitely one of my favorites. I’ve lived in Indiana for a few years now and this print taught me that my state flower is a PEONY! It is my favorite flower so that was the most pleasant surprise. Do you know your state flower off the top of your head?
I love the array of colors used in this collection, and especially appreciated the challenge to use black/dark brown. These dark prints are named Charcoal, but it has more of a brown hue than a true black which I actually love. It was hard to pick favorites from this collection! Every print is as darling and adorable as the last.
Below are some of my favorite blocks (and my favorite flowers) that ended up in my quilt.
Indiana – Peony 
Gentle clouds 
The most lovely tiny flowers 
Louisiana – Southern Magnolia 
New Hampshire – Purple Lilac
Tutorial
1
Cut your 10 fabrics into 4.5″ x WOF strips. Nine of the fabrics will be used once (just one strip needed), and one will be used twice (two strips needed). You will have a total of 11 strips.
2
Determine the order of your fabrics. I like to fold my fabric into smaller squares/rectangles and move them around until I’m happy with the pattern.
3
Sew strips together. You can sew all rows together, but I like to do it in smaller chunks because it makes cutting (step 4) easier. I sewed rows 1-4, 5-7, and 8-11 together.
4
Cut nine 4.5″ strips from your sewn sections as seen below. I chose not to press the seams yet, and just carefully flattened the fabric while cutting.
5
Sew your newly cut pieces together to form columns, attaching the squares at row 4+5 and 8+9 as seen below.
6
Lay out your desired pattern with your columns. I opted for a simpler pattern by offsetting the columns by just one square. Feel free to make whatever pattern you like!
For this pattern, seam rip the last square in columns, 2, 4, 6, and 8 (the bottom pink squares shown below).
7
Sew the pink squares you just removed from the bottom of columns 2, 4, 6, and 8, and sew them to the top of those same columns, as seen below.
8
Press your seams. I pressed the seams of the odd columns (1, 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11) UP, and the seams of the even columns (2, 4, 6, and 8) DOWN. This way when sewn together, the corners will “lock” with each other and produce a nice, flat seam.
9
Sew columns together, using the opposing pressed seams to lock your corners into place.
10
Baste, quilt, and bind! I decided to back and bind my quilt with one of my favorite RBD Basics EVER, Blossom. I use this basic in almost every quilt I’ve made recently, I can’t get enough! This color is called Peaches n Cream (SKU at the end of the post).
Congratulations on your new adorable crib quilt!
Thanks for following along! Be sure to check out my website for other fun makes, free tutorials, and quilt patterns.
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Fabrics Used
- Basics Texture Pistachio – C610-PISTACHIO
- Basics Blossom Peaches n Cream – C715-PEACHESNCREAM
- Wild and Free Gold Grid – C12936-GOLD
- Wild and Free Charcoal Grid – C12936-CHARCOAL
- Wild and Free White Dots – C12937-WHITE
- Wild and Free Charcoal Main – C12930-CHARCOAL
- Wild and Free White Main – C12930-WHITE
- Wild and Free Peach Clouds – C12934-PEACH
- Wild and Free Mint Clouds – C12934-MINT
- Wild and Free Coral Leaves – C12933-CORAL
- Wild and Free Gold Flower Toss – C12932-GOLD
