New to quilting and aren’t sure what to use as a first project? Maybe you are an experienced quilter and need a quick project for a baby shower. Baby quilt kits are a great easy way to get started on a baby quilt without having to commit to the entire quilt making process.
What is a baby quilt kit? What does it include?
A quilt kit is a kit of fabric, usually precut to the exact shapes, necessary to make a quilt. A quilt kit will typically contain everything necessary to make the full quilt top, and depending on the kit, may also include the materials for the backing and binding of the quilt as well.
There are different versions of a quilt kit that you will be able to find with varying levels of work already done for you depending on what tasks of making a quilt you are looking to take on. Some quilt kits may have every quilt piece cut for you, and some may just provide the yardage. Some may include the pattern, others may not.
Some quilt kits are curated by fabric stores to coordinate with popular quilt patterns, many of these require you to purchase the pattern for the kit separately from the original pattern writer.
What is the purpose of many of these? It gives you flexibility to cut out pieces of the quilt making process you may not love.
Cutting accurately can be a common struggle among beginner quilters, purchasing a true quilt kit where all of the pieces are precut for you can take this portion out of the project for you.
Other quilters may love the entire physical process but just don’t love picking out the colors on their own. Using a prebuilt quilt kit takes all of the stress out of deciding on what goes where because its already decided for you! The benefit to this is that you already know you are going to like the color selections before purchasing it.
Every quilt kit varies a little bit in what is included and how it is handled so be sure to read the details before purchasing to know what may or may not be included in your kit.
What to look for in a Baby Quilt Kit
When looking for a baby quilt kit, it’s important to know what size you are looking for. Quilt kits do come in all quilt shapes and sizes so you’ll want to be sure to take a look at the dimensions before purchasing.
You can find more about standard quilt sizes in our post here, but for a baby quilt, you typically want to shoot for about 48” square or smaller. This is about the largest you’ll want to go.
My personal sweet spot for a baby quilt is 36” square, however a rectangular shape somewhere in-between is great as well.
While you can go smaller into the 24” range, it starts to become a bit small to do much patchwork in giving you more of a mini quilt situation that a baby will quickly grow out of.
Related Baby Quilt Articles:
More Than Stars – The Disney One
A Simple Chevron Quilt for a Last Minute Baby Shower
A Simple Chevron Quilt – The Playful Blue One
Blocked – Modern Color Block Baby Quilt
Can you buy baby quilt kits?
For sure, you can definitely buy baby quilt kits.
Because of the amount of work that goes into assembling a quilt kit, you’ll often find some limited options at larger shops. The patterns are usually limited to the latest release of that store, and you may find only a single color options for that pattern.
My go to place if I’m looking for a baby quilt kit is Etsy. Even if each store only has a few options for quilt kits, because of the Etsy platform, you can find these few listings from many different stores all in one search result giving you a much bigger variety to choose from.
For the best choices across multiple categories of quilt kits, ones for beginners, modern patterns, patchwork patterns, and more, Etsy is the best place to find them.
Quilt kits for beginners
BsFabricShack Quilt Kit
This easy quilt kit by bsFabricShack is great for the woodland theme nurseries that is definitely one of the popular themes this year. My brother used it for his sons nursery theme and this baby quilt kit would have fit in perfectly!
A panel of different baby woodland animals gets cut up and framed by different borders to show off the art of the animal scenes. This is a great easy baby quilt kit for beginners because it has limited seam matching compared to a common checkerboard pattern quilt.
This kit includes all the fabric for the top as well as the fabric for the backing AND binding, so all you’ll have to grab is the batting to sandwich it and you’ll be on your way!
Peony Pedal Quilts Whole Cloth Quilt Kit
Maybe you are BRAND new, and are looking for the easiest entry level quilt kit you can find. This whole cloth kit is my immediate vote. The fabric selection for this quilt kit is absolutely stunning, you don’t need to be a beginner to want to make this beautiful floral baby quilt.
Not a single seam in the quilt top, just sandwich your batting between the two “whole” fabrics and start top stitching. This project can be completed by a complete beginner in a day or two.
This quilt kit by PeonyPedalQuilts includes the fabric for both the whole cloth top and the backing, as well as the binding. While you will have to assemble the binding, this project will be a quick finish that will rival the best of the best gifts at any baby shower you bring it to.
Patchwork quilt kits
QuiltieSistersS Sea of Love Quilt Kit
In my search for the best of the best baby quilt kits, the common theme that jumped out at me was that these quilt kits are generally more simple patterns. Designed for beginners or quick projects, the variety can be limited.
But not this one. As patchwork as you can get, QuiltieSistersS designed this Sea of Love patchwork pattern that has a hidden heart in it! Perfect for the newborn baby to show them some love 🙂
This one is on the pricier side of this list, however this heavy patchwork quilt kit is entirely precut for you so there is a lot of time invested in cutting those shapes ahead of time, reflecting the higher price point.
While a beginner can certainly take on this project, this one is great for an experienced quilter who just wants to cut out the cutting process!
QuiltieSisterS Irish Chain Quilt Kit
Another QuiltieSisterS kit, but hey, I can’t pass up a great design when I see one. There is something timeless about an Irish chain. It’s a simple and classic design and the fabric selections for this Irish chain baby quilt kit gives it a great delicate look that would look amazing in any nursery.
This kit comes with all of the squares precut and ready to start sewing, so you don’t have to tediously cut out every square in the blocks before sewing. If you are in the market for a pretty baby quilt design for a baby girl, this one is a great option.
Modern quilt kits
Wilderness Quilt Kit
This Wilderness Quilt Kit by The Sunny Path Fabrics has a fun mountain theme to it that incorporates some half square triangles in order to get a speckled look to the mountains and sky. This quilt kit is a fantastic option for a baby shower for any type of wilderness, forest, adventure, or woodland themed nursery planned for the new baby.
The fabric pulls for this project have many wild animals and geometric designs in a calm color palette that make it a great gender neutral baby shower gift. This one has two options depending on your budget, you can either purchase the top and binding, or add the backing to the project as well using one of the fabrics from the collection.
Shop this Quilt Kit on Etsy Here.
Dinosaurs Quilt Kit Assembled by PinkChihuahuaFabric
This Dinosaurs quilt by Elizabeth Hartman has been a popular design for a child’s quilt for a few years now. And how could it not when kids often go through dinosaur phases. This pattern comes in a couple different sizes that you can grab directly from Elizabeth Hartman’s website, however the PinkChihuahuaFabric Etsy store was kind enough to put together a precut quilt kit for this pattern that you can buy!
Although you will have to purchase the pattern and the kit separately, having baby quilt kits available for more complicated patterns such as the Dinosaurs allows you take advantage of the convenience of a quilt kit no matter what level quilting you like to work at.
You can find the Quilt Kit here.
Precut quilt kits
MontanaQuiltLoft Quilt Kit
I had to include a star quilt. They are just such a timeless design that will almost never look out of place. This star quilt pattern is fully precut so all you have to do is sit down and sew. Star patterns can be tricky to cut with all of the smaller pieces so having this part done ahead of time really helps make this style project easy even for the newest quilters.
This project has an optional backing that you can purchase with the project, a standard cotton that is one of the coordinating fabrics in the quilt kit, or you can opt for a minky backing. Minky backings are super popular for baby quilts because they are just so soft! So if this is something you’ve been dying to incorporate in your baby quilt project, this kit is a great option.
Olivia Jean Quilt Co Floral Quilt Kit
Olivia Jean Quilt Co is a great little Etsy store that specializes in fabric bundles and precut quilt kits. Using their coordinating fabric bundles, they put together tons of checkerboard pattern quilt kits using fun modern curated fabric collections.
These are not the collections from the big fabric companies, the Moda, Riley Blake and so forth, these kit fabric selections take bits and pieces of those bigger collections and makes something entirely new! This quilt kit was developed and curated specifically by Olivia Jean Quilt Co, and some of their selections are super cute even for an adult to use!
This floral collection is a perfect option for a baby girl and has the option to come with a backing, binding, AND batting as well. This is the only quilt kit on this list that has the option to include batting, so if you want the full package, this is the one!
Cheap quilt kits (under $50)
Olivia Jean Quilt Co Alpaca Quilt Kit
Another quilt kit by Olivia Jean Quilt Co, this one is so much fun with the llamas! This one leans a little more towards baby boy, and I love how the fabrics compliment each other so well! Set up to use the same basic checkerboard pattern, you can opt to add in the batting, binding, and backing for this one as well.
Depending on your project, materials, and quilt size, baby quilts can often reach up above the $100 mark. Olivia Jean Quilt Co offers her projects in multiple packages to fit your budget making her baby quilt kits one of the least expensive options on this list.
Shop Olivia Jean Quilt Kits on Etsy here.
Misty Mountains Quilt Kit
I’ve made a handful of mountain quilts over the years and they are by far one of my favorite themes of quilts to make. Why? Because they are always so quick! They always look beautiful and they don’t take long at all to put together. When I saw this Misty Mountains quilt kit by The Sunny Path Fabrics, I knew I had to include it because it immediately made it on my personal quilting bucket list.
Finding any quilt project under the $50 mark is usually a home run so to have a fun modern quilt kit like this under that price point is awesome.
Are quilt kits worth it?
Many of these baby quilt kits can be found for similar prices that you would buy the fabric directly off the bolt for. The best part is that you are only getting what you need for the pattern so you will end up with less waste or leftover fabric to store at the end.
They are also great for beginners because the precut quilt kit options cut out much of the need to purchase cutting supplies right at the beginning. Since all of your quilt pieces are already cut, you can start right away on the sewing and skip that step altogether.
The one downside to quilt kits is that if you are looking for a fully precut quilt kit, you’ll be hard pressed to find them in more advanced patterns, especially with odd shaped quilt pieces. The time it takes to cut out odd shapes is hard to justify in a price that is competitive enough for shops to offer. More often than not you’ll be limited to patterns consisting of mostly squares.
The less work the store has to complete in order to create the quilt kit, the more variety you will find. If you don’t mind cutting the pieces and just want someone else to pick the fabric colors, you will find many more pattern options to choose from.
Regardless of which type you choose, quilt kits are fantastic options for a quilt project. If you want a quick project, or struggle with fabric color selections, quilt kits are a phenomenal solution that you may love to use.
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