One of the easiest beginner quilt designs is a simple patchwork quilt. The plus quilt is a variation on that design- and this tutorial uses a few different shapes beyond a square to flex the beginner quilt pattern muscles just a bit.

This is a great scrappy quilt pattern, but for purposes of a beginning tutorial, I will include specific fabric and cutting instructions.

Baby Plus Quilt Tutorial

Fabric Requirements:

  • 10 Fat Quarters (I used various prints from Canopy by Rachel Erickson of Citrus and Mint Designs for Riley Blake Designs)
  • 1 1/2 yard backing fabric
  • 43″ x 48″ batting
  • 1/3 yd binding

Cut the Fat Quarters as follows:

This quilt pattern doesn’t involve piecing any blocks- it goes right into arranging fabrics, and then piecing into rows.

First, match the pieces together to make the correct plus shapes according to the diagram below. 20 full pluses (1 C piece, 2 A pieces), 4 side half pluses (1 B piece, 2 A pieces), and 4 top/bottom half pluses (1 C piece, 1 A piece). There are also 11 single pieces, or A pieces. You will have one leftover A piece from your fat quarter cuts, which you can discard or save for scraps or a label on the back!

Arranging fabrics into a balanced quilt top is a skill that is continually being honed as you progress in your quilting journey. Balancing the color, saturation, and scale is all a part of that. This pattern is good practice for balance- there are 20 full pluses within the center of the quilt, so start by arranging those. Fill in the outer partial plus blocks from there. Step back and take a photo, and then walk away, and give your brain and eyes a break from concentrating on colors and patterns. Then, a little later, check the photo and see if anything looks wrong on first glance. I almost always find something that I can’t believe I missed the first time around! You can also convert the photo to black/white to check your saturation distribution.

Layout Diagram:

Once the layout is finalized, it is time to sew the rows! I suggest you mark the rows before you begin, just pin a little scrap piece of paper to it with the row number on it. This will help keep you organized as you sew, and especially when you reassemble!

If this is your very first quilt, I suggest checking out Amy’s post on patchwork, she has detailed instructions on how to piece rows together that is perfect for the uninitiated. ;)

Always use an accurate 1/4″ seam allowance, it will help immensely when you go to sew the rows together. Press all the odd numbered rows to the right, and the even rows to the left so you can easily nest the seams.

After the blocks are sewn into rows, start sewing the rows together. Refer to the row numbers to make sure you get it in the right order- you just spent all that time (not too much time, I hope!) arranging the pluses to be perfect and you want to keep them that way! Once all the rows are sewn together, press all the seams toward the bottom.

Your quilt top is finished! It will be about 39″ x 45″, the perfect baby size. The next step will be to send it to a quilter or quilt it up yourself. One of the perks about a baby quilt is that I have no problem quilting it on my home machine, and I can do it pretty fast now too!

I hope you get a chance to try out this plus quilt! It is a fast, fun, and memorable way to break into quilting. The plus design is really popular, and can be used for any age, but this size is just right for baby!

For other beginner quilting tutorials, visit my Pinterest board for Beginner Quilt Tutorials or Beginner Quilt Patterns