Make This: Mod Triangle Baby Quilt Tutorial
For another new baby coming into our family, we made this peachy triangle baby quilt. It was inspired by a quilt spotted in a pricey boutique. In our do-it-yourself version, we used four solids in varying shades paired with a metallic gold polka dot. Finished size is about 40″ x 63″.
Supplies Needed:
-5/8 yard of five fabrics for the triangles
-1/2 yard binding fabric
-2 yards backing fabric
The first thing you will want to do is choose your color palette–we used 5 different fabrics, gray, gold polka dots, and 3 shades of coral. This pattern takes on a completely different–and really cool– look when done with scraps.
Cut each fabric into 5″ strips (this is a baby quilt, so we used four 5″ strips from each color). Then, cut each strip into 60 degree equilateral triangles; i.e. each side of the triangle should measure the same.
When all of your triangles are cut, stack them up and admire your work– they will look something like this.
To sew these together, lay two triangles side by side with the points going opposite directions, or long sides facing.
Using 1/4″ seam allowance, sew along one side from point to point. Clip the extra fabric off at the points to reduce some of the bulk at seam intersections.
Before you get too many sewn together, decide whether you want to plan out your pattern in advance or let it happen randomly. We did more of a random placement, while trying to used the same amount of each color. Continue sewing triangles together in rows. For this size of quilt, we used 18 triangles per row.
Sew the rows together, matching triangle points carefully until you reach the desired size. We did 14 rows for this oversize baby quilt.
When all rows are sewn together, trim each side to remove the extra triangle bits along the edge. Leave a 1/4″ amount past the triangle points to be covered by binding.
Here it is on our long-arm quilting machine. We quilted it with a simple looped scallop design, so it wouldn’t detract from the overall pattern.
Cut binding 2 1/4″ wide, and angle the ends at 60 degrees. Sew all strips together, press, fold in half lengthwise and press again.
Sew binding to the front of the quilt, using 1/4″ seam. Miter the corners by sewing to the end of a side, folding the binding over and then sewing down the next side.
Match and seam the binding where it meets and finish sewing the binding all the way around.
Sew the binding to the back of the quilt by hand with a hidden whip stitch. These little plastic clips are great for hold the binding in place while you sew it on.
Once the binding is sewn on the back, it looks like this from the front. This makes a very nice finish.
Now this quilt is all ready to wrap up a new arrival! Give this a try and share your pictures with us on Facebook or Instagram, and tag it with #modtrianglebabyquilt.
-Diane & Audrey
Love this! You guys are super talented! I was sorry I had to miss your trunk show at MGQS! I was in Denver! Thanks for all the great ideas, patterns and fabrics!
Thanks, Wendy! We missed having you there.
A wonderful tutorial! I have wanted to make a triangle quilt for some time but I didn’t have a 60 degree ruler. This looks like an easy way to make one with your regular ruler, thanks!
Hi!
Thanks for the great tutorial. I plan to use this pattern to make a quilt for my nephew-on-the-way. One thing, can you please let me know which way you press the seams on the triangles, or do you press them open?
Thanks!
Stephanie
Hi Stephanie, because of the way the triangular seams meet up, it doesn’t really make too much difference which way you press. We suggest pressing one row one direction, and the next the other, but you will still have some bulk at each triangle intersection.
I’m so excited to finish this quilt but I am struggling with one step. I have all the triangles paired up and am trying to sew them together to form the row but can”t seem to get them to line up properly Is there a trick to doing this step?
Thanks!
Kirsten
Hey Kirsten, our best tip for matching the triangle points would be to pin them with the points lined up. Holding the fabric up to the light will help you see where the pin should go. It takes a little bit more time, but it’s worth it when you don’t have to unpick. This is definitely the hardest part of sewing triangles!
This is a great quilt! I’ve been wanting to make a triangle quilt for quite some time now. I’m wondering if I can use pre cut fat quarters for the triangles.
Thanks!
You can definitely use fat quarters! In fact, that’s what we use for our Star Farm Quilt!
I really like your pattern and clear instructions. I want to make this, but smaller size. I am wanting 40×40 or 45×45. How can I alter the instructions? I think I can still use the 5in triangle, but want to make sure before I start cutting. Thank you!
Hi Emily, if you wanted it to be 40″ x 40″, just do the same width with only 9 rows. (Technically, it would be 8.5 rows to get it exactly 40″, but this would be pretty close.)
If I cut the fabric into 5” strips my triangle will not measure 5” on each side. Please help me out.
You’re absolutely right! You just want the sides to all be about the same length. It will work no matter what size the triangles are, as long as they are all the same as each other.
I just finished making this quilt by using this tutorial. I do have a few suggestions though. First, I ended up choosing 6 different fabrics to add more variety since you are using so many triangles. My personal preference 🙂 Second, this tutorial hardly explains how to finish off the edges of the quilt. You can see in a few photos that they sewed scrap 60 deg pieces to the edges and then cut leaving a 1/4 in seam allowance. This was just not explained at all to use scrap pieces. I didn’t have the proper amount of scrap pieces while following the measurements they gave. I ended up using 19 triangles per row and then to finish off the edges I cut leaving 1/4 in. This is the only way I could figure it working was having an odd number of triangles per row. I just wanted to make the suggestion to clear up this tutorial to finish off the edges. Third, while I was piecing each row, I found it much easier to iron each seam open. I left the corner tails on as this helped me when lining them up for more exact sewing. Also while ironing I didn’t not use steam and was careful to not fuss with the triangles. As they are cut in the bias it made it much easier for the fabric to stretch. Overall, not the most detailed tutorial. It definitely took some help from and few very seasoned quilters to help me fill in all the missing gaps.
Hi Lauren, thanks for your tips. We did use scraps for the edges, but it still works the same if you use full triangles. Next time feel free to contact us! We are very responsive to questions. (Most of our tutorials are pretty light on the details, since we put most of our time and efforts into our patterns, but we are happy to help!)
Thank you for posting these photos and tutorial; I’m working on this pattern right now! I really wanted to try a new quilt pattern that didn’t have an obvious up/down orientation, and this fits the bill perfectly.