Quilt Along for Churn Baby Churn baby quilt

I'm making a baby quilt for my son's teacher with my Churn, Baby, Churn baby quilt pattern. This is my first quilt along post for the project - and you're invited to join me!

Churn, Baby, Churn baby quilt pattern

The pattern uses a 10 inch squares pack - or layer cake - to make the churn dashes and backgrounds - no other fabric yardage needed for the front!

I get discouraged by patterns that are designed to use with precuts but then need me to add yardage. So this was a personal design challenge and I like the results. The scrappy effect of using two different fabrics behind each churn dash leaves lots of potential for playing with the colours in a fabric line. 

This is the second year my son has had this teacher - and it will be her third boy. When my son came home with the news I knew I finally had a happy reason to cut into my Uppercase fabric fat quarter bundle :)

Because the pattern is written for 10 inch squares - and then cutting those squares into 5 inch squares - I decided to cut my fabrics so my making would look like what you would make if you followed the pattern. Of course, you could also cut up a fat quarter bundle like I did to make this quilt.

 Here's a post for that:

How to make your own 10 inch squares

Now the fun part: deciding which fabrics will be the churn dashes!

I went through and took photos of three different options to show you how versatile the pattern is and also, the kind of fabric line that will make your Churn, Baby, Churn baby quilt happy too. I'm sure you've noticed that some fabric collections have lots of variety when it comes to colours, and others have very few different ones. The results will show in your quilt. Take a look at these examples and see which one you like more than the others. (None are wrong or right - just notice what you like!)

From my Uppercase fabrics I chose 12 different ones that read as light. They're not in any particular order here - meaning I might move them around in the quilt - but these would be my choices if I was making 12 light churn dashes.

Here are the 12 light churn dash fabrics paired with two background fabrics each. 

I would chose light churn dashes if I was hanging this quilt - it gives a more subtle look to the quilt and would be easy on the eyes for a long period of time.
At least that's what I think ;)

Here are my choices for twelve dark churn dashes. The number fabric is not part of the Uppercase line - but definitely inspired me to make this quilt for my son's teacher. She has done a great job nurturing his love of mathematics and I think this is a fun way to say thank you.

Here are my quick choices for backgrounds for the dark churns. I think this one would be very graphic and visually striking. I think the dark churn dashes would almost vibrate against some of these background pair choices I made! 

Then I had to go bright! If this quilt was for ME, I think I would choose to make my churn dashes with these bright prints. I hesitate to call it a feminine palette because I don't think that's how they end up looking when you add the dark backgrounds. Take a look:

See? Again it's a very dynamic, graphic effect. This one might feel busier than the dark churn dash one because of the bright fabrics vying for your eye on top of the backgrounds that are a mix of light, dark, and bright. Definitely a fun mix!


Which one do you like best?

Remember, fabrics make a quilt, but your fabric choices make it YOUR quilt!

If you're quilting along - yay! - take some time to play with your fabric and decide on which ones will be the churn dashes, then the backgrounds. 



  I love this part at the beginning of making a quilt.

 Thinking about who the quilt is for, 

what fabrics to use,

 what the quilt is celebrating/commemorating,

 and how I want the recipient to feel is

 probably my favourite part of the process.

 My next favourite part is seeing the fabric choices coming together in the right pattern!

The current pattern cover features this quilt :)

Second post in this quilt along is here

Here's a post with the quilt finished and photos of the back and the quilting -

Finished Uppercase Churn Baby Churn quilt

With Joy,

Sarah V.