If you've ever wanted to make a small baby blanket, lap blanket, or a quilt, here's how! It's easy, and pretty fun once you get started. You'll need a few things, though.

• a sewing machine
• fabric
• thread
• scissors, pins, and other sewing tools

The first step to making a blanket is to decide how big you want to make it, and draw out a design. All your pieces should be square; about 6 inches looks and works best, so go from there. 36 by 48 inches is a good size.

You can have a pattern or just a patchwork quilt. I personally think patterns look better. You can have a large square in the center and work out from there, with rows or columns. You can have a border of one kind of fabric and then make rectangles within it of different fabrics. You can make your corners a different color. Whatever you want. Label the different fabrics you're using as A, B, C and so on, if they appear more than one place on your design. There are a million possibilities! Just have fun with it. But, remember, usually simple looks better. And, if it's your first quilt/blanket, simple will make it easier!

Once you have a rough design, figure out how much of each material you will need. Add a quarter inch seam allowance to all sides of the square or rectangle. A 6 by 6 square will be 6.5 by 6.5, for example. Multiply that by how many squares of that fabric you'll need. Also, you'll need to make a back to the quilt. It's easiest just to buy a single, big piece of fabric to accomplish this.

Next, go to a fabric store. Bring your design paper and your measurement calculations. If you have three different fabrics encorporated into your design, make sure A, B and C work together well. Hold them next to each other, overlapping, so that you can picture what they'll look like sewn together.

You can create a theme, like underwater, if it's for a baby. Or you can go by personal interests, like music. Also, you can just go by a color scheme. Make sure you get thread that works well, and a corresponding back piece that matches all your fabrics. If you're doing a patchwork quilt, where there is no real design, just pick fabrics that look good together. You'll lay them out later. Also, make sure you have batting or stuffing to put in the middle to make it fluffy and soft.

IMPORTANT: Make sure you have enough of each fabric. It's better to buy a little too much than not enough. You don't want to have to go back to the store every day!

Next, cut out your fabric using fabric scissors or another kind of fabric cutter. If you have a lot of squares, make or buy a template so that you don't have to measure each one. Try to make your squares as close to the same size as possible! It'll really help later. Also, save all your extra fabric just in case.

Now, lay out all your squares and pieces exactly how you want them to look. It's fine to change your original design and move things around. When I made mine, we switched the colors countless times. Make sure you're totally happy with it before you start sewing.

When you sew, you should begin in the center of your blanket and work your way out. This will give you a core to build on, and you can adjust the pieces as you go so that they fit and are straight. Pin each piece to the one next to it as you go. Pin them front to front, so that the backs of each fabric are facing up if you look at it. Make sure to make a quarter inch seam on each one. If your seams aren't equal, the pieces won't come together right. This is the trickiest part. Also, be sure to sew as straight as you can. If you aren't used to sewing with a machine, start off slowly.

Check the corners as you go, and do your best to line them up. You may have to resew parts of it to make it look better. Don't worry about it- you'll get better!

Iron the seams open as you go to make it as flat as possible. If you have a lot of excess material on the bottom from the seam, it's okay to trim it off.

When all your squares and pieces are together and ironed flat, it's time to add the batting. You need to make a very thick sandwich of your batting on the top, with the fronts of your backing fabric and patterned piece facing each other beneath the backing. Line them up as best you can. Then pin them around all sides, leaving about a foot on the top unpinned. DO NOT SEW THIS PART.

When it's all pinned together, you should have a stack with the batting/stuffing on top, and the back of your quilted piece on the other side, with the backing piece in the middle. front to front with the quilted piece.

Sew carefully around all the edges, making sure to catch all the fabrics as you go. Don't sew that foot on the top!

Next, flip the quilt inside out, or rather pull the other two layers through the hole you left unsewn so that the proper sides are showing. Fix any spots that didn't quite work, and poke out the corners. Then, sew the foot on the top by hand.

You're done!