Make your own flannel quilt! Perfect for this cold winter weather. Heavy, soft, and toasty warm… a great handcrafted gift particularly for those guys who are hard to shop for! Best of all, it’s beginner friendly and no pattern needed.
Finished Size: Approx. 51 x 72 inches (lap quilt)
Difficulty Level: Beginner
You will Need,
- -140 5.5 inch squares of various cotton flannel fabrics (I used 13 fat quarters by Robert Kaufman)
- -3.5 yards of a 44 inch width cotton flannel for backing (I am generous with backing)
- -80/20 Cotton batting about 59×81 inches
- Cotton Thread for piecing and quilting
Note: I did not use any additional fabric for the binding, I just trimmed and folded the extra backing fabric around towards the front and hand stitched it down that way, to minimize bulk. If you would like to add a traditional binding, don’t forget to get that additional fabric.
The Story…
One of my long term goals is to make a quilt for every person in my family. When I saw this Mammoth Flannel fat quarter bundle by Robert Kaufman, I immediately thought of my Grandpa! He is outdoorsy, camps, likes to sit by the woodstove in his workshop… A sturdy flannel quilt seemed perfect and turns out, he LOVES it!
I have to admit… It was really difficult to gift this quilt too! It is the simplest quilt I have made in a long time… But definitely one of my favorites! Now I intend to make one for all of the men in my family… And for many of us ladies too!
Fabric
I do recommend a high quality quilter’s cotton flannel because lesser qualities may shrink more and pill faster. I used a fat quarter bundle by Robert Kaufman (and flannel yardage for the backing from his line as well) and was very happy with it. It is buttery soft! I did not prewash any of those fabrics.
Another cool option would be to cut up and use old flannel shirts! If you do this, I would just make sure they are prewashed/shrunk along with your backing flannel since fiber content may vary.
Piecing
The construction is very simple and perfect for a beginner. I’m sharing all of the measurements with you and if you already know the basics of quilting, you’ll be good to go!! If you don’t, stay tuned for tutorials on my YouTube channel and you’ll be quilting in no time.
You will need 140 squares of various flannel prints that measure 5.5 x 5.5 inches. They will be pieced together into 14 rows of 10. This makes a quilt about 51×72 inches finished, and I found this to be a good large lap-sized quilt.
I arranged my prints in a “random” order, my only rule was no same two prints could touch each other, but of course anything goes! My three year old son wanted to help, so he arranged many of the squares himself and I must say, he did a great job!
Quilting
Once the quilt top is all pieced together, it’s time to make the “quilt sandwich”. I actually found the flannel to be a bit more slippery than a regular quilters cotton so it was a bit trickier to sandwich. Spray baste may have been a better help here, but I did manage without.
Leave a good 4 inches of extra backing+batting all the way around your quilt top. This is extra important if you want to bind by using the backing, like I did.
The quilting itself was just a straight stitch going vertically and horizontally 1/4 inch from the seam of each block. Super easy and relaxing! A walking foot is a must, there is no way I’d attempt this project without using a walking foot on my sewing machine. The flannel has a bit of slip, and with it’s bulk, using a regular 1/4 foot would be a headache of bunching. I had zero bunching problems with the walking foot.
Binding
I have never done binding like this before, but it turned out better than expected! Initially I was concerned about adding a separate standard binding because of the potential bulk it could create, and I didn’t want to just go with a regular quilter’s cotton fabric because I wanted the entire quilt to be flannel. I was also worried about mixing fabrics that might shrink differently in the wash. So this is what I did instead…
First, I quilted down the edges of the quilt top 1/4 of an inch inwards. This held down the edges and also gave me a guide to where I should place the binding. Then, I carefully trimmed the batting ONLY, to be flush with the quilt top, and left the backing oversized. Then I trimmed the backing to be 1.5 inches larger than the quilt top/batting. Then folded that 1.5 inches in half, then in half again, to just cover the 1/4 inch stitch line I made. Then hand stitched that down.
The biggest downside to this method in my opinion was being unable to square off the quilt, but it still turned out pretty well regardless!
Of course this binding choice was all personal preference, you might chose differently for your project!
Thank you for joining me!
Thank you for following along! I hope this inspires you for your own project. I myself will definitely be making more of these!