One Way to Finish the Edges of a Baby Quilt

Have you ever been tempted to buy one of those pre-quilted baby quilt panels?  You know the ones that don’t have finished edges.  Yeah, that kind.  I don’t usually even think about buying one of these because, they can cost a lot, and I have no idea what to do to make it look great!  Last summer I found some panels on clearance for $1.50 each panel (I bought 4).  Now what to do?  Last September, while with some friends at the State Fair, I saw the solution to this problem, how to finish those quilts.

Supplies:
1 unfinished baby quilt panel (price varies from store to store)
1 skein Bernat “Pipsqueak” baby yarn (less than $3/skein at Walmart) or anything fuzzy like that
1 size 4 crochet hook
1 awl
Scissors

Trim the edges top, bottom and sides, so that they are even.

The ideal way is to hemstitch around the edge of the quilt and then, crochet the edge using the hemstitched holes.  My sewing machine doesn’t do hemstitching, and I hate to pay to have it done.  So, I decided to just punch holes, using an awl, through all three layers of the quilt.  

Then I would single crochet with the yarn, going from one hole to the next.  I would punch 10 holes in a row and then single crochet the ten holes. (To start the single crochet, I would push the hook through the hole through the 3 layers of fabric, grab some yarn with the hook and pull it through.  I would have 1 loop on my hook. Then I would go to the second hole and push my hook through the hole, grab some yarn and pull it through the hole, I now had 2 loops on the hook.  Then I would grab some yarn with the hook, pull the yarn through the two loops and end up with one loop again.  Then you move on to the next hole and repeat.)  Keep your stitches loose so that it lays smooth.  If you just can't get it loose enough, add a chain stitch between each hole.

Then I would turn it over to check that I had gone through all three layers.  This is a spot I missed.  I took it out and redid it.

When I reached the corner, I would make a larger hole...

Then crochet, 3 single crochets into the same hole, to turn the corner. 

When I finally reach the beginning, then I would connect the stitches and tie off, weaving the tail of the yarn into the crocheted area.  It worked and it looks great!  Yep, I’ll do it this way from now on (an only 3 more to go)!  Enjoy!