Graham's quilt

This baby quilt was finished in 2015, but I don't think I showed the finished quilt. It was for a new baby on the block who was expected in November. Didn't finish until December and didn't get it to the parents until this past weekend.

1-, 2-, 3- and 4-inch squares combined to make 6-inch squares and set with four 6-inch squares of the focus fabric print. 

Quilted horizontally and vertically with an elongated zigzag along the block seams and two or three inches between.

The backing, which I forgot to take a picture of, is black with bright circles in orange, blue, green and red. A perfect match for the top. The binding is a solid black. The quilt measures 37 inches square.

Baby quilt inspiration

As I was rummaging through the scrap bin looking for fabric for Lori's mini mystery, Country Roads, I found a piece of this Alexander Henry fabric. I'd made a couple baby quilts over the years that included this adorable fabric, and I remembered that the neighbors are expecting in November. I've made baby quilts for all the babies born on the block since we moved here.

Alexander Henry fabric. An oldie, but a goody.

I was able to fussy-cut four six-inch squares (finished size) from my scrap. I decided that I'd scatter those squares across the top. At first I thought I'd sew six-inch nine-patches, but I didn't like any of the arrangements I sketched out for that. Then I decided to cut coordinating fabric in four-, three- two- and one-inch squares (finished), and combine those units into six-blocks. I cut up the rest of the focus fabric into one-inch squares and included them too.

I pieced the squares until I was nearly out of units to work with and then cut some more pieces. Pieced more blocks and cut more units until I had enough six-inch blocks to make a six-by-six arrangement. As usual, I carefully placed all the squares to balance the color placement, but either something went wrong in the sewing or I didn't notice it earlier, and I ended up with the large dark blue and dark purple clustered together. It doesn't bother me enough to undo it, and I'm almost positive that moving things around would probably result in a cluster of some other fabric or color that would also bug me. Murphy's Law of quilting?

Top is 36 x 36 inches.

The top is 36 x 36 inches. I think that's an acceptable size for a baby quilt if it makes it to the baby shortly after birth. I need to find a little more than a yard of fabric for the backing so I don't have to piece it. Not sure about the binding. Maybe try to use up the scraps from the top or go with a solid black.

Linking up to Nancy's Quilty Inspiration for this week.

Yes, another pink baby quilt!

41 x 41 inches.

The baby quilt was for one of the neighbors. I had the top done ages ago, but with all the work travel this year, I hadn't gotten around to quilting it. Then a For Sale sign popped up in their yard, and I had the motivation I needed!

The backing is a soft pink minky. A little slippery to work with and did it shed when cut! I was covered in pink bits for days, but I'd use it again because I think babies will love the feel. I do.

The quilt was based on the pink fabric from my stash. The pattern is one of my own that I've made before, which leaves large areas of the focus fabric visible. The colors for the rail fence and star blocks are taken from the colors in the focus fabric: blue, teal, yellow and red. An odd combination, but a happy one.

For the quilting, I used the zigzag stitch from this quilt, and quilted a grid of horizontal and vertical lines.

All fabric from the stash and scrap basket except for the backing. 

A pink finish

44 x 44 inches.

The very pink baby quilt was finished right as the baby arrived. A girl as expected. Hope she likes pink as much as her mother.

The back is a warm and soft flannel. Probably getting lots of use this week with its unseasonable cold. Temps below freezing and wind chills even lower. Brrrrrrrr.

Machine quilting in the ditch with the lines extended into the background.

I can't seem to get the colors quite right in any of my pictures.

Baby quilt process

I made this baby quilt on a deadline.

Baby quilt, 40.5 x 40.5 inches.

Digging through my stash I found a cute fat quarter of animals in race cars and pulled fabrics in orange, yellow, green and blue to go with it.

I decided to cut strips of racing animals and fill around them with rectangles of other fabric. The fat quarter happened to have the selvage on it, and it is "Go Mice Go" by Jennifer Sampou for Robert Kaufman Co.

Once everything was arranged on the design wall to my liking, I sewed the pieces together in rows and then the rows together.

I read on a blog somewhere about using the specialty stitches on your machine for quilting, and I tried it with this quilt. It took maybe five minutes of tinkering with the settings of the zigzag stitch to get a look I liked.

 These poor mice and goats are traveling a bumpy road!

Nothing in my stash worked for the backing, but I found the perfect thing at the quilt shop.

I had just enough of the backing fabric to make the binding too. And, I mean just enough. There are two small pieces 2 1/2 inches by about 3 inches left over!

Like a fine wine my quilt has legs

and like the glass I started with dinner, it is finished.

Baby Boy Blue, 39 x 47.

The quilt has been mailed off to my sister for her friend, whose baby arrived a few days ago.

I marked the darker fabrics with a white chalk pencil and the light blue background with a hera marker.Straight line quilting is definitely my forte.The main part of the quilt is diagonal lines in one direction, and the border is diagonal lines in another direction.I figured that if I felt that wasn't enough quilting, then I could do lines in the opposite directions so the whole piece was covered with a grid, but I liked it with the just the first set of lines. 

The binding was attached entirely by machine. With practice I expect to get better at that. This is my third baby quilt this year with machine binding. I enjoy hand sewing binding, but I just haven't had the time recently.

Note to self: Make this into a baby quilt

I was looking through my baby-suitable scraps to see what I could use for a quilt when I found a magazine and the note I left myself. Sometimes I can't figure out why I have dog-eared a page: My past self found inspiration in something that completely puzzles my present self.

American Patchwork & Quilting, Quilt Sampler, Spring Summer 2011.

Fortunately, I left myself a note and after taking another look, I had to agree with myself. Yes, Laura Boehnke's Color Option would make a good baby quilt. Too large though so I redrafted to a smaller size.

The center came together quickly, but I didn't like the border fabric I thought I would use.

Nothing else in my stash really worked for me. The bright lime actually seemed to dull the quilt. What I liked, I didn't have enough of so it was off to the quilt shop.

She still had more of the blue I'd used in the very center, and I found a magenta fabric to match that in the print for a quarter-inch flange.

Top is done, and measures about 40 x 48 inches. I found a nice blue and lime green leaf print in the sale rack for the backing so now it is on to the quilting.

Baby, baby, baby

Yikes! Have I not posted since January? Here's why: baby quilts. Three of them. And my sister asked me yesterday to make one for her friend who is due in June. I'm already brainstorming patterns.

Avery's quilt, 36 x 36 inches.

In the debate on whether to prewash or not, let me just say that if you prewash, it is not enough to do it you must also check the water and wash again if it bleeds. Or throw in some color catchers with the load. One of the reds, long in my stash, bled when I washed the finished quilt. I must not have been paying attention the day I washed it. Eight or nine washings later and a half box of color catchers, and the quilt was presentable again. Quilted in the ditch between blocks and between the squares of the blocks.

Detail of Avery's quilt.

***

Pearl's quilt, 30.5 x 30.5 inches.

This quilt was made with two charm packs. Both from Sweetwater. Lucy's Crab Shack and Noteworthy. I didn't prewash these, so I was expecting shrinkage, but because it's the same manufacturer and designer, I thought the pieces would likely shrink at the same rate, and they did. And they didn't run.

Detail of Pearl's quilt.

Quilted in the ditch on the diagonal. I love these fabrics. Charm packs are a great way to fondle every print without too much of a hit to the pocketbook. I bought yardage of two favorites (hard to choose) for the back and binding. Didn't prewash either so they would shrink similarly to the front. Leftovers have been washed and added back to the stash. I hope I'm not the only person who keeps my washed and unwashed fabrics separate.

Back of Pearl's quilt.

***

Cora's quilt, 36.5 x 46 inches.

This was made to complement the nursery bedding. Gray and yellow, although a color combo I like, was not my first choice for a baby quilt. Took me awhile to come up with a design. Applique too. It's a wonder I finished it before she graduated college given the state of my other applique projects.

Detail of Cora's quilt.

Back of Cora's quilt. Yes, that's more Noteworthy fabric.

My first finish of 2013

If you count a top as a finish that is, and I do.

Baby Dash, 36 x 36.

Helps that it is small! 

The story of a very bossy quilt

Once upon a time (a couple months ago) I found this white dotted fabric and brought it home to keep some of my stash company. The fabric kept begging to become a baby quilt. A churn dash quilt of six-inch blocks to be exact. I pulled some fabrics from my stash, but I needed at least another orange and something to balance the brown with blue spots. And I didn't need to make this baby quilt. I needed to make a gray and yellow one.

I tried to ignore this pile of fabric, but the begging grew louder. The only solution was a trip to the quilt shop, which I was pleasantly surprised to find has expanded into the space next to it! I bought more fabric, not all of which will be used because this is to be a baby quilt after all, not a king. I was a little low on orange fabric anyway so this should all work out.

With the fabric all washed and ironed, I started making the parts of the churn dash blocks so I could arrange them on the wall and see which layout it wanted to be. 

Option 1: Checkerboard

Option 2: Rows

Option 3: Medallion style

Option 4: An X 

Option 5: Four patches

Four patches it was. But a disagreement had developed between the brown with blue dotted fabric and the other fabrics so a butterscotch fabric was substituted.

The butterscotch was better, but not a perfect fit so one orange and one blue-green block were substituted.

The fabric has stopped speaking to me, but I know that if I don't get these blocks sewn together soon the begging will resume. I wish the yellow and gray fabric would speak to me. I need to get that baby quilt started before that baby arrives next month.