Hey everyone. Today we're making a cozy lap quilt with big, easy pieces and one beautiful wideback doing double duty.
No fussy little blocks. No seam down the middle of your backing. Just a calm, watery blue and a weekend of sewing.
First, let's talk about this fabric
This is the Blue Ocean Etchings Cotton Wideback Fabric Per Yard from Oasis Fabrics.
It's cotton. And it's a wideback — 118 inches wide.
A regular quilting cotton runs about half that width. This one gives you a whole lap quilt — top or backing — in a single piece. No long seams to match. No wrestling a pieced backing straight.
The color story is all water. Blue, light blue, ocean blue, and a touch of turquoise. It reads like the surface of a lake on a bright morning.
The print is Etchings. Soft swirls run through the whole cloth, like little currents drawn right into the fabric. Up close it has gentle movement. Across a room it settles into a pretty, tonal blue.
That's exactly why I picked it for a lap quilt. The print hides a multitude of sins, folks.
The project: a seaside lap quilt
A lap quilt is the hardest-working quilt in the house. Mine lives on the couch, over my legs in the evening and over the arm of the chair the rest of the day.
We're making ours about 50 by 60 inches. A good, generous lap size. Big enough to share with a grandkid. Small enough to finish in a weekend.
Here's the plan. Use this wideback as the backing — one solid piece, no seams. Then piece a simple top from large squares so the blue stays the star.
Or flip it around. Use the Etchings as a whole-cloth front and let your quilting stitches trace those swirls. Completely up to you. I like it as the backing, because that smooth ocean finish feels so good folded over your legs.
Materials list
- 2 yards of Blue Ocean Etchings wideback (118 inches wide) — one piece for the backing, with plenty left over
- About 1 1/2 yards total of coordinating quilting cottons for the top, or a handful of fat quarters
- Batting, about 54 by 64 inches
- 1/2 yard of fabric for binding
- Thread to match — I like a soft blue-grey that blends into both sides
- Your usual tools: rotary cutter, ruler, pins or clips, a walking foot if you have one
Brief steps
Step one: piece the top. Cut your top fabrics into big squares, about 10 1/2 inches. Sew them into rows, five squares across and six rows down. Press your seams to one side. Here we go — easy math, fast finish.
Step two: cut the backing. Lay out the wideback and cut one piece about 54 by 64 inches. That's your quilt size plus about 4 inches of breathing room on every side. One cut. No seams. Just like that.
Step three: layer it up. Backing face down, batting in the middle, top face up. Smooth from the center out. Pin about every 4 inches on a quilt this size, or spray baste — your choice.
Step four: quilt it. Start simple. Stitch in the ditch along your square seams, then echo those lines about 2 inches out if you want more texture. Or meander freehand, following the swirls in the print for inspiration. Keep your stitches around 8 to 10 per inch. Slow down at the thickest seams — that's where needles get grumpy.
Step five: bind it. Cut binding strips 2 1/2 inches wide. Sew them on, fold to the back, and stitch down. Miter your corners the best you can and move on, friend.
Practical tips before you start
Prewash or not? With an all-cotton quilt like this, I give the fabrics a gentle wash first. Everything shrinks together, and the finished quilt gets that soft, crinkly hug. Completely up to you, though.
That leftover wideback is gold. You cut 54 inches off a 118-inch width, so a long piece remains. Save it — it's a future backing for the next lap quilt, already seam-free.
And here's your permission beat. Your lines do not have to be perfect. You're your own worst critic — nobody else is measuring your echoes. A wavy line still keeps somebody warm. Take your time. It's not a race.
The first lap quilt I bound, I sewed one corner completely shut. Had to rip it out and redo that side. We laughed, we fixed it, and that quilt is still on a couch today. Mistakes are just part of the story, y'all.
Alrighty. Thanks so much for sewing along with me today. We'll see you next time. Bye.
Shop the Blue Ocean Etchings Cotton Wideback Fabric Per Yard at Linda's Electric Quilters.
