Owl Baby Quilt

With the arrival of a new nephew comes a new quilt. My sister and brother-in-law had their second child recently, so, of course, I was expected to make a quilt for them. Going off their colors they chose for the nursery (brown, turquoise and yellow) and that they were using owls as a theme, it was a no brainer to do the same for the quilt!

Coming up with an owl design was going to be the most difficult part. To make it as easy as possible, I looked at the basic design elements in the fabrics I chose, On a Whim and Urban Zoologie from Robert Kaufman. They are both rather different takes on owls, but both utilize the same color palette, which made them work so well together. I drew out simple shapes on cardstock, cut them out, and used them as templates for the appliqué owl on the front of the quilt. My only regret is that I used the sewing machine to stitch it to the top, rather than hand stitch it on.

On the back, I created a new Odd Bug character specific to this quilt and will never be used again, much like each quilt I’ve done for a child, and embroidered it using the same colors I used on the quilt top. I also embroidered his name underneath.

Just looking at these pictures made me realize it has been some time since I did any real quilting. Perhaps that means I need to make a change, oil up my 1963 Singer Touch N’ Sew Deluxe Zig-Zag Model 600 Sewing Machine, slip on a new needle, and get to work on any number of projects just waiting to be completed.

Baby Blankets

Does anyone else get a thrill out of seeing pictures of quilts you’ve made with the babies they were made for? I love them.

The other day my sister-in-law emailed me some pictures of my nephew taken with the baby blanket I made for him. I love the fact that he actually uses the blanket. Yes, that means it will get stained and might fall apart at the seams, but at the same time it is being loved. I know there are those who feel like some of these quilts should be wall hangings only, but my thoughts on the matter are that I made them for the kids not the adults.

I still have my baby blanket. It is now threadbare and probably could only physically take only one or two more washings before it completely unravels, but I love it nonetheless. It has been with me since birth and I can’t see departing with it even though that was way back in the day when Elvis was still alive, Jimmy Carter was President of the United States and Star Wars hadn’t even been released yet.

What are your thoughts on quilts made for babies? I’d love to hear about them.

Loss

When a child loses a parent, for some reason that seems expected. But when the roles are reversed, no matter when it happens, it is simply unthinkable.

Last night I received a phone call that one of our good friends lost her baby at thirty-eight weeks. I can’t imagine the loss she must be going through right now. No warning signs or any indication something was wrong up until yesterday when she noticed the baby was not moving. How does one cope? How does one grasp what has happened?

And so now I am thankful I haven’t yet sent off the quilt I made for the baby because our friend decided to wait until after he was born so I could add his name. However, perhaps, when the time is right, I will do so anyway if she wants me to. Perhaps instead it could be a memorial quilt. Perhaps. In the mean time, I will keep the Frog and Fairy Quilt boxed up and wait however long it takes.

Weekend Sewing

It isn’t impossible to accomplish great things when there are a million other things to do. Just make sure there is plenty of chocolate at the end of the tunnel.

Even with gift fairs and bazaars and birthday parties and dessert baking for the church auction on the docket for this weekend, I managed to get in some sewing. Another block down for the Fall Quilt, which means only three left, and I finished the top of the commission quilt I’m working on using greens and browns. Trying to figure out a design for this quilt proved to be just as nerve racking as limiting my color choices. I knew that with the small fussy-cut images I created and printed out that I’d have to fit those into a larger block, but was unsure if I wanted to do simple frames or pieced blocks.

I decided on log cabin blocks and started piecing the two smaller images. After those two, and realizing I had goofed on my second one and the only way to fix it was to either rip the whole thing and start over or create the other two blocks in the same fashion which, unfortunately thanks to the Nazi party, would create a swastika. Probably not the best baby blanket design, even if the original symbol was quite benign before the Nazi’s hijacked it. Grrr… So I figured the other two could be simply framed using the two large prints I had picked out and I’d somehow make the whole thing work. Hopefully it did.

Baby Blanket Blues

I’ve got the baby blanket blues. More accurately, the greens and browns.

I seem to be stuck in a rut. Somewhere along the line of trying to come up with some design for inspiration or anything to make the latest baby blanket, I’ve dug myself into a hole that I can’t crawl out of. After purchasing multiple prints of greens and browns, as requested per the mother, it seems that my creative ability to turn that fabric into a quilt has, well, been dissolved into a pile of fat quarters. Something tells me that this has a lot to do with the fact that I’ve been focused on my Fall Quilt as of late and not so much on any of the other projects. However, something else tells me that I don’t want to start on the quilt without an idea of where I’m going with it either.

And so tonight after work I’ll probably continue to work on the Fall Quilt. Why? Because I at least have an idea of what I’m doing with it. Hopefully tomorrow after going to the Holiday Gift Fair I will be inspired to start the baby blanket. Figures. Typing the word “fair” just made me think of fairies which also made me think of frogs which makes me think using that as a basis for a baby girl’s quilt would be fabulously fantastic. Funny where inspiration comes from. Especially when you least expect it.

Haste and Forgetfulness

Do you ever have days where you just want to kick yourself? I’m having one right now.

Months ago I finished a baby blanket for my newest nephew. In my haste to send it off last week I apparently also forgot to take any pictures of it completed. Balls. Somehow it managed to slip my mind to, oh, I don’t know, take a few pictures of the finished product any time during the interim that it was here before I mailed it. I’ve gone back and forth now a dozen times trying to find out if maybe the pictures got downloaded into a different folder, but alas, I don’t even remember taking pictures of it.

And so instead of this being a post about how cute the quilt is or how I managed to make yet another baby blanket for other peoples kids, it’s going to be about getting older, forgetting, and then the mad rush to finish everything up. I mean, I know I’ve been in quite the funk for the past year photo-taking-wise, but still, that is no excuse for not taking pictures anyway. I also know part of it is that I don’t have the time I once had (back when I was unemployed) to devote to getting the shot just right and then editing it. I’m sure if I really wanted to I could, but part of the reason I significantly lowered the amount of pictures I post is because I started using the laptop instead of the desktop to blog. With my Wacom Tablet and Pen on the desktop along with all of my photo editing software, most of the pictures I’ve posted on here lately are, well, straight out of the camera and hastily taken without composing the shot first. Basically, the kind that should be edited the most, especially since these are also taken pre-coffee.

Maybe I can ask my brother to take a few pictures and send them to me so I can both have a picture of the quilt and be able to post it on here. Okay, there really is no maybe about it. I think I’ll go ahead and ask him to take a picture of the front full-on, a picture of the back embroidery work close-up, and just for shits and giggles, one of my nephew wrapped in it. Perhaps this is the way it should be anyway. However, I’m still kicking myself.

Holy crap! I just realized I DID take a picture of the top before putting the backing on! It was on my cell phone, which means it really looks awful, but alas, it will give you an idea. I’m still going to ask my brother to take pictures and send them to me. And after looking at them I’m also going to edit them on the other computer first.

Another Baby Quilt Finished

Yesterday after getting home from work I decided to finally finish the baby blanket I started for my brother’s newest addition to his family. But I must admit, it’ll be hard to mail out.

All of my nieces and nephews have a quilt made by me. It’s part of what I do, and a big part of what is expected of me. My sister informed me she was pregnant not by stating such but by saying I needed to start another baby blanket. So when my brother told me that he had another boy on the way, I immediately went into planning mode on what to make. It wasn’t long before, much like my sister, he told me what colors. Personally I’m not a big fan of having people tell me what to do, but alas, it helps to focus my fabric hunt down a bit too… mostly.

I picked out the fabrics, appliquéd the figure to the top, pieced and sewed it all together, folded it up and waited for them to tell me a name so I could embroider the back. Well, then we moved and so it was packed away and practically forgotten until a few weeks ago. By this point the baby was born and a name picked out, so I embroidered the back with it along with an Odd Bug character (all of my baby blankets have cartoonish bug characters I create specifically for that quilt) that will only be featured on this blanket and put it away yet again. This time because I realized our pastor and his wife’s baby shower was coming up and I had to figure out what I was going to do for them.

And so I finally finished yesterday. All sewed up, tied, washed and dried. Now that it is ready to ship I’m finding it difficult to do so. Not just because the quilt is so dang cute, but because it is going to a nephew I probably won’t see for quite some time due to a lack of finances and distance.

p.s. – Pictures to come soon… after I know that they have received it!

Baby Quilts

Finally I got some quilting done over the weekend. You have no idea how good that feels.

After working a couple extra shifts at work earlier in the week, I ended up having a four day weekend. One would think I’d have taken full advantage of that and packed up stuff or finished a few projects. Instead I spent most of Thursday doing nothing. Okay, that isn’t true, I did go grocery shopping.

Friday, after wrestling with my dog trying to bathe her and then cleaning up her sudden head-shake induced blood splatter off the walls, door, ceiling, counter, floor, and especially the cabinets, I cut my hair and showered myself. Then I hopped in the car and desperately searched for the Better Homes and Gardens Perfect for Precuts special publication because some of my favorite designers were featured on the back cover. Yes, I know, silly. Anyway, it was to no avail as I went to all three major craft stores and my favorite quilt shop, Country Manor, in search of it. Oh well, I got some more needles for my sewing machine and a new rotary blade for my cutter since it’s been a bit dull as of late and picked up another fat quarter of fabric to finish my brother’s baby-to-be’s quilt. I then did the dishes before my husband got home to make it look like some housework had gotten done.

Fast forward to Friday evening. I somehow managed, after my somewhat busy day to also start and finish the top of my brother’s baby-to-be’s quilt. I can’t show any pictures because he reads this blog too because, well, my family is nosy and likes to know as much as possible about everyone probably so any juicy bits can be used against them in an argument. We all do this. Anyway, Friday night I had one quilt top down. Yea.

Saturday was too busy, what with looking at the house we’ll be renting next month and then off to the Farmer’s Market and then a trip to the emergency room to watch the boys while their mother took her seven month old daughter in to find out why she had a 104 degree fever and then out to dinner and drinks with friends for my unbirthday since I spent my birthday weekend making cakes and celebrating other peoples birthdays and holidays. Okay, so Mardi Gras isn’t so much a holiday as it is an alcohol-laden gluttonfest, but still.

Sunday after church, which I’m surprised I even went since I was so tired and had zero energy from the night before, I made a late breakfast and then started figuring out how I was going to make the three baby quilts I said I’d make for an auction our church is holding for an additional fundraiser to pay for the stained glass and roof repair work that was done last year. I’d decided a while ago that I wanted to use the Lily & Will line and picked up two Charm packs to complete all three quilts last month. Yes, I know this doesn’t seem like enough, but I knew that I already had some solid cream Charms leftover from my sister’s baby blanket that I could use to make up the difference. And so after separating the squares into colorways of pink, blue and green, I then used the remaining cream and brown squares to fill in and added two solid creams to each pile. After randomizing the squares I chain stitched them together and then pieced the whole thing rather quickly. Gotta love precuts. I’ll be posting the process I went through soon. However, one top down, two more to go. I’m hoping to have those done today.

No Cuts Yet

Okay, so, after further analysis of my fabric choices, I really don’t like the inner blue I grabbed out of my Past Project Stash as the color, well, clashes badly. Back to square one, or is it?

When I typically make a baby blanket, the size is almost always the same or at least in a general range between thirty and thirty-four inches square. This makes it just the right size for a baby and can then be used as a carry along or wall hanging when they become toddlers. Well, that and you can get quite a few blankets this way using a queen-sized batting.

My dilemma is this: I have 4 fat quarters and some muslin yardage. Typically this would be enough, except that I want to use one of the fat quarters as the center square on which the appliqué will be sewed onto, which means that at most it’ll be eighteen inches square. That means, using the same method I use to border a majority of my baby blankets, the finished product would only be twenty-six inches square. But, I have options, right? Should I just break down and buy another fabric for the center? Should I simply say, “Screw it!” and make the quilt smaller? Or do I, and this third option just came to me, make the quilt a rectangle instead, utilizing the full size of the fat quarter I want to use in the center? Hmmm… I think I may finally have a satisfactory solution.

Must Quilt

I’ve been itching to start work on my brother’s baby blanket for a while now. Perhaps this week will be as good a time as any… even if it will also be filled with packing.

Every time I get the urge to quilt, something happens. Sometimes good, sometimes bad, sometimes ugly as in the Case of the Oozing Ears our dog suddenly got on Saturday as she is fighting off another rather nasty yeast infection due to her chronic allergies. Yuck. Another trip to vet, swab, microscope, another prescription to add onto what she started a little over a week ago and hopefully we can get that part under control too. I love working at a vet clinic!

Anyway, quilting. I’ve got the fabric. I even ransacked a small portion of my scraps from past projects and stash unintentional stash building efforts for a background fabric to place the center appliqué on and shoved it into the bag of other stuff. Now, here’s the thing. I could’ve cut everything down to size, but I haven’t yet. I even made the templates for the center appliqué pieces, but still, no cutting. What the hell? Surely I’ve had time to cut fabric, if not sew it together? Alas, I have nobody to blame but myself.

So this afternoon on my lunch break I’m coming home and cutting out my pieces. Sure, I could do the dishes which have been piling up and multiplying like rabbits, but why bother when there is fabric begging to be turned into a beautiful baby blanket?

Baby Shower Gifts

Yesterday was my sister and her husband’s baby shower for their first child. It was a blast.

Okay, so as far as baby showers go, small spaces crammed with so many people it would make a fire marshal cringe would normally be a bad thing, but mommy-to-be said it was perfect because it forced people to actually mingle. I have to admit I was a little worried but it turned out fine. They loved the cake and I patiently waited for them to open presents because, let’s be honest, baby showers really are mostly about the gifts.

I didn’t even know if my sister would remember the books I’d made when I was in high school, but when she opened up the package and suddenly started going on about how I used to read them to her and our other sister (who was hosting the shower) it made me glad I had decided to get a couple of those books printed to give to family and friends. One of the books I had actually dedicated to her and she even remembered I had made it originally as a birthday present one year. Needless to say she was excited to be able to read those books to her own kids.

Then she opened the diaper bag, from which my arm is still sore and bruised, and loved the fact it was made in the nursery colors of black, cream and pink. It immediately got passed around for everyone to look at and inspect. Thank God for the Moda Bake Shop, and thank you so much Bradie Sparrow (quiltcetera.com) for the pattern for this bag. It really is super cute and was super fun to make… except for those damned handles.

Finally it was time to open the baby blanket. I always package my baby blankets with the back embroidery facing because it has the baby’s name. Once opened and unfolded everyone oohed and awed over it before I told her she was holding it upside down. After it was righted, it also was passed around. And thankfully she liked the little bit of orange I added to it.

I have to say I wondered if all my efforts were worth it, but seeing the look on their faces totally made it so. Yes, it was a lot of hard work, but I also had fun in the process. And knowing that the gifts would be appreciated is nice too.

Embroidery

Whenever I make a baby quilt, I embroider the baby’s name on the back along with a little Odd Bug of my own creation. I started this with the first baby blanket I made and have continued the tradition with every one I’ve made for my nieces, nephews and those munchkins I count as such.

Yesterday I finally finished all of the embroidery on the back of my sister’s baby blanket. Okay, so there really wasn’t much embroidery to work on, but seriously, I’m quite lazy and took my time. Actually, I took my free time, and by free time, time that I wasn’t paying attention to what was going on around me. This isn’t that unusual for me. After all, embroidery work for the most part requires an immense amount of concentration to make sure the threads go where you want them to go and the needle doesn’t poke you going in and out. Okay, so I still poke myself and tend to draw a little blood every time I embroidery, but really, what’s a quilt without a little blood, sweat and tears… literally?

Baby Quilt

Sometimes limiting color choices is challenging, as with the current baby blanket I am working on. However, more challenging is me staying within those boundaries, which I rarely can ever do.

My sister’s baby blanket is coming along nicely. The appliqué is sewn on and everything is pieced together for the top. If my calculations are correct, I should be finished with this quilt by day’s end. Of course, I still need to do all of the embroidery work, part of which still needs to be designed. And then there is the matter of embroidering the baby’s name into the quilt, which, let’s face it, parents have a way of changing names before the baby is born, which is why nearly all of the baby quilts I’ve done have been after birth. My sister on the other is a planner, and when things don’t go according to plan, watch out!

So here’s what I need to do: Text or call her to confirm the baby name; design an Odd Bug character for the embroidery on the back; embroider both the front and the back of the quilt; sandwich with cotton batting and sew together; tie the quilt; lightly wash and dry the quilt. That is all completely within the realm of possibility for an afternoon. However, will I be in the mood to do so when my Layer Cake of Kate Spain’s Central Park arrives today? Alas, I’ve been bad and bought more fabric for my stash right before we have to move, which means one more thing to pack. Then again, this line of fabric seems to be incredibly popular, so I figured if I wanted to get my hands on some I’d better buy it now while it is still somewhat widely available. We’ll see if I can stay focused on the task at hand and not be tempted to open up the Layer Cake and drool at Kate Spain’s latest creation.

Baby Blanket

Ugh, I’m having some creative issues on my sister’s baby blanket. I definitely should’ve drawn out a plan before starting it.

Okay, so when I made my other sister’s baby blanket and posted the step-by-step instructions on this blog, I figured I’d gotten all the little kinks worked out. However, I must have forgotten about the worst kink of all… the creative one. I usually have a simple drawing with what the basic plan is for the blanket and, if needed, templates for the center appliqué figure. I didn’t do any of that with this blanket and the sad part is that I can’t post the specifics about the blanket to get some feedback from you because, well, my sister reads this blog. My other sister doesn’t so I didn’t feel any pressure posting how I made her little boy’s blanket.

Alas, I’ll have to tough it out. Perhaps I may even have to make a quick sketch just to have something to go off of before I get too involved in the project and have it turn into another Uninspired Quilt. Yes, I definitely need to do that. And I definitely need to find just one more fabric for the border. Maybe then I won’t be so nervous about the project!

Leftover Quilting

While I wait for inspiration to arrive on The Uninspired Quilt I’ve been working on for several weeks now, I decided to raid my stash of leftover fabrics from other projects. So far I’ve gotten two baby quilts out of it and enough for a third project.

The first stash I came upon was from a baby blanket I made for my second cousin Stella. The fabrics are adorable, featuring ladybugs and daisies, and I felt completely ready to make another blanket using these fabrics. This wasn’t just because there was so much leftover, but because the simplicity in the color scheme, the cuteness of the patterns, and the type of blanket I was going to make all seemed to come together effortlessly. My first project was going to be a small baby blanket or wall hanging, or as many of the recipients have done, both… in that order.

Now, these projects were from the beginning going to be put into my Etsy shop for sale, so why I was able to work on them so quickly is beyond me, unless, of course, The Uninspired Quilt just doesn’t have the same pull. I don’t know, maybe I need to not worry about trying to finish that one for sale and possibly make it for one of my sisters. That might just be what I need to get it done and out of the house. For the wall hanging I made a stencil, cut out the pieces for the front appliqué and started piecing the quilt together. I’ve made quite a few baby blankets in this manner, so it went together rather quickly. I’m sure if I would’ve worked on it continuously it would have been done faster. These wall hangings are super cute and I’m sure if I put my mind to it could get at least two finished every day.

For the second project from the ladybugs and daisies fabrics, I wanted to make a crib blanket, and I knew I wanted it to be blocks, with every other one in the blue background fabric. This took longer than anticipated, not for ease of simply strip piecing and cutting the blocks down to size, but because I decided to hand tie the corners of every square to give it a wonderfully puckered look after it is washed. It’s not that I don’t trust my machine to do quilting stitches on it, I just really like the look of hand tied baby blankets. It gives this crib quilt character and a genuine handmade touch.

I know I can squeeze one more project out of the leftover fabrics and I’m thinking of making a tagalong blanket for a toddler, which will probably be machine quilted for extra durability. I’ve also been toying with the idea of making a mobile or puffy ladybugs and daisies, but haven’t really gotten to the planning stages for that yet.

So what is my goal from this endeavor? To go through my leftover fabric stashes and make new projects from them. And hopefully sell them. I’m pretty sure I know which fabric stash I’m raiding next and can’t wait to get started on a set of baby boy stuff too. Of course, ladybugs are bugs and daisies are arguably one of the most masculine flowers, and the color scheme or blues, red, yellow and green are quite gender neutral, so there is no reason this couldn’t be for a little boy too.


http://www.etsy.com/shop/ModernMaleHomemaker

Baby Blanket Part 4: Embroidery and Final Touches

Okay, so your appliqué is sewn on, your pieces all sewn together and your baby blanket is starting to look like just that. What’s left? The hard parts.

Before you can sew your blanket completely, attaching the backing and batting, you should decide what and where to put any embroidery you want to put onto your project. If you have opted not to put any on, you can proceed directly to the sewing together of the batting and backing onto the front. For the rest of you, either draw out a design on paper and trace it onto the fabric, or freehand it on, or for you adventurous folk, thread your embroidery needle and start embroidering!

 

I like to go in two motions when embroidering. First I go left to right in one direction, then go back over it from top to bottom in another. This produces a nice effect that only improves after its first washing. On this particular blanket, I also decided to embroider a tag on the collar on the front appliqué, rather than cut and sew that small piece on.

Once the embroidery work is complete, congratulate yourself if you didn’t poke your finger with the needle. But if you did, like I usually do, it just adds to the charm of a homemade baby blanket that you literally poured your blood, sweat and tears into!

 

The next step is to pin the batting, backing and front for the border sewing. Make sure the front and back are facing each other, and I find putting the batting on the top keeps my sewing machine from acting up as it seems to keep stray cotton fuzzies from entering the machine and causing chaos and turmoil and crying and all around frustration. When pinning, I try to line up the pin tops with the edge of the fabric underneath, which gives me a line to follow while sewing and prevents gaps as well that may have to be fixed afterwards.

I sew all around, starting a few inches from the center of the bottom, and work my way around until I am about six inches from where I started. This leaves an easily sewn gap from which to pull out the blanket right side out… after pulling out all the pins and inspecting for gaps and making sure none of your pins accidentally got trapped in the batting. Yes, I’ve had this happen before, and no, it was not fun to rip the stitch and fish it out.

After you have the blanket right side out and pulled the corners taut, sew up the six inch gap by stitching down through the front, batting and back, tying off every few stitches or so to make a nice locking stitch. This is confusing, and I don’t know the term, but basically stitch in a way that you won’t see it. Is that called a blind stitch? I don’t know.

Once the blanket is all sewed up, the final step is to tie off. I prefer tying off to quilting because I don’t have a quilting long-arm, but if you want to quilt yours, go right ahead and do so. I start with the four corners, tying off with embroidery thread where the four fabrics meet, and double knotting the tie before cutting it down to about half an inch. Then, I tie the middle of the border where it meets the center fabric on all four sides. To figure out where to tie on the center appliqué portion, I fold the blanket into a triangle and then fold the corner tie off to the center tie off and mark where the end of the fold is, tying off that way for all four sides in the middle. The final tie I simply locate the exact center of the blanket and tie off there. If, like with this particular appliqué, the exact center is not a good place to tie off, simply find an area close to it. I found the collar was only half an inch from where I wanted to tie off, and I can live with that.

Congratulations! Now your baby blanket is complete! I usually lightly wash the blankets in borax and don’t use fabric softener before putting it into the dryer to dry on low to medium, just until it is dry. Promptly remove from the dryer, fold, and wrap or box it for the recipient!

Baby Blanket Part 3: Pinning & Sewing

With all of your pieces cut for the baby blanket, it is time to begin the process of pinning and sewing. The squares are easy, but the appliqué can be a little tricky.

I usually start with the border, and since the pieces are only 4½” wide, don’t bother pinning them as my hands can keep them in place for the half-a-second it takes to join two pieces this size together. It you feel this isn’t in the realm of possibility for you, go ahead and pin the pieces, right sides facing, at the top and bottom of the square. Sew the border into four parts with a ¼” to ½” seam; two shorter pieces with just the center and border adjacent squares, and two longer pieces with the border adjacent and border squares. After sewing these pieces together, set them aside and begin the center square which will have the appliqué on it.

The appliqué part of the process requires a little imagination, or a little logic, or maybe some of both. If you did a dry run, you should have a pretty good idea of what needs to be sewn on first; the pieces under the top pieces. To acknowledge a seam allowance will keep the stress level low. Simply move your pieces in about half an inch from where they are during the dry run and pin them into place. To help with figuring out the exact location, sometimes it is easier to start pinning a top piece into place, and fold back where the bottom pieces will need to be put. This is especially helpful when a top section will be surrounded by multiple bottom sections, such as the case with this particular blanket.

When sewing the appliqué pieces on, you can use a decorative border, such as a zig-zag or large cross-stitch, but I prefer just a straight stitch, between 6 to 10 per inch. Why? Because I do. You can stitch yours on any way you like. I know I should experiment with the multitude of stitches available to me on my 1963 Singer Touch & Sew Deluxe Zig-Zag Model 600 sewing machine, with all the extra stitch plates and built in stitches it has, but I like the look of a straight stitch with a little of the folded seam showing, as this is how I did my original baby blankets, albeit, those were done completely by hand. Sometimes a piece needs a little stuffing, like this one I didn’t like the look of the nose being flat, so just before it was completely sewn, I stuffed in some polyester fiberfill using a chopstick to get it into all the crevices.

After the appliqué is sewn on, it is time to start attaching the border pieces. I first sew on the shorter pieces, pinning them to the left and right sides of the center square. For this 26” piece, I usually use five pins, one in the center, one on each of the border adjacents, and one on either side of the center between the border adjacent and center pin. This is usually enough to keep the border together during sewing, however if you feel more comfortable pinning more on, go for it. Just make sure the right sides are facing each other and you sew the wrong sides with a ¼” to ½” seam. Using the same technique, sew the larger pieces with the corner squares onto the center after unfolding the side borders and try to match up where they meet. This may require sewing in the squares a little more to position everything just right. Or, you can always just not worry about it, as it will give it a more homemade look if the imperfections are not corrected. Once the top is all sewn together, it is time to begin the embroidery and final touches…

Come back tomorrow for Baby Blanket Part 4: Embroidery and Final Touches.

Baby Blanket Part 2: Patterns & Piecing

Okay, so you should already have your fabric chosen, your design figured out, and have a rough idea of what you want your baby blanket to look like. Now comes the hard part… making patterns for the appliqué, and cutting the pieces.

Well, patterns can be easy or hard, depending on how difficult you want to make them. If you are making an appliqué character that will be symmetrical, simply draw half of the pattern on sturdy card stock, construction paper, or plain copy paper, fold it in half and cut. This will leave you with a perfectly symmetrical patter from which to trace onto your fabric. Continue drawing and cutting out the pattern pieces until you have all of them ready to go.

Now it is time to cut your fabric. If you have it, use rotary scissors and a cutting mat with a straight edge or ruler to cut your fabric pieces to be quilted together. For this particular baby blanket, I cut out four 4½” squares for the corners, eight 4½” squares for the corner adjacent pieces, and four 18½” pieces for the center of the borders. Next, I cut a 26½” square for the center and a 36” square for the backing. This will make up the base of the quilt.

Before cutting the pattern pieces, I lay the paper patterns down where they will go onto the blanket, and check whether any pieces will need to be adjusted. If everything fits well, move on to the tracing stage. If it doesn’t, cut down the pieces that aren’t working, or make a new pattern if it is really bad… and yes, this sometimes happens!

For light fabrics, I usually trace with a regular pencil, going around the paper pattern onto the fabric and being as frugal as possible because I am a cheapskate. When tracing onto dark fabrics, I use a white colored pencil. Both pencil types will wash out when you are done quilting and give the blanket a quick wash and dry before gifting it.

Next, cut out your traced fabric pieces. For this you can use rotary scissors or regular fabric scissors, whatever you find easiest to work with. I usually switch back and forth, using regular scissors for the smaller pieces, and rotary for the larger. For some of you more adventurous folks, and I have done this too on a couple quilts I’ve done for my friend Sarah’s twin daughters baby shower, just freehand the appliqué pieces without a pattern. This sometimes makes a rather whimsical freestyle look that can work, depending on the design.

So all your pieces are cut, now what? It is time to do a dry run with all the fabric in place where it will go before you start sewing. Doing this will help you decide if it needs further tweaking or if it is time to start pinning and sewing. Gotta fix something that doesn’t look right? That’s why you do a dry run. If it looks perfect, it is time to start pinning and sewing…

Come back tomorrow for Baby Blanket Part 3: Pinning & Sewing

Baby Blanket Part 1: Planning

The first thing I do when I’m planning a baby blanket is take a look at the fabric I already have. This usually results in me going to the store to buy more. After that task is done, it is time to design the blanket.

Most baby blankets I have done are thirty-four inch squares. Why this arbitrary number, you ask? Well, a crib sized blanket is 34x48 inches, and from what I have seen, this is too large for little hands to carry once they are toddlers, but the shorter square seems to be just right. That, and I have also seen a lot of these blankets used as wall hangings when they get older, in which case, a square is easier to hang than a rectangle, especially when taking furniture into account. Of course, the real reason is because I got a really good deal on 36” muslin and crib-sized cotton batting years ago when my first nephew was born, and utilized that on the first eight baby blankets I made.

Usually I have my fabric choices picked out before I start the design process, but sometimes, I start the design process and build around that. Either way works. I usually find it easier to design something around the fabric, than try to find fabric to go with the design. Drawing out the design, and don’t worry about scale, I can get a rough sense of what the quilt may look like. Nearly all of my baby blankets share the same traits: They are 34” square; they have 4” square corners, surrounded by a 4” border between, and sometimes more squares beside the corners; they have a 26” square center; they have a large appliquéd insect or animal in the center; they are backed with plain, natural muslin; they have a hand embroidered original character insect on the back; they have the child’s name embroidered under the bug; they have my signature name embroidered in the lower right-hand corner.

Once the design is finalized, I start placing different fabrics in various places on a table to get an idea of what fabrics will go where. Most of the time I have an idea, but until I start putting them side-by-side, I don’t know if it’ll work. With the one I’m working on now, I ended up not using two of the fabrics I bought for this project because I couldn’t figure out a place to put them, and that is okay because I did use two fabrics I already had, both of which were leftovers from other baby blankets. Once you have all your fabric choices and placements figured out, it is time to move on to the next step…

Come back tomorrow for Baby Blanket Part 2: Patterns & Piecing.