THE MAKING OF A BABY CLOTHES QUILT - part 3

Today I'm going to show you how I fuse the stabilizer to the blocks and also affix the appliques. Because the fabrics I use from the baby clothes vary in weight from thin tshirts to knitted sweaters, I like to use a lightweight fusible interfacing. I found the the Pellon 911FF - fusible featherweight - serves my purpose very well. All I need is something that will keep the knits from stretching out.

I cut the interfacing in 6.5" squares, just like the clothing blocks using my ruler and rotary cutter. All it takes to fuse the interfacing is a steam iron set on cotton for about 10 seconds.

Now the blocks are stabilized for the next steps that involve sewing.

After the stabilizer is applied, I trim any part of the squares that extend beyond the interfacing. Then it's on to the appliques.

For my appliques I use Pellon Wonder Under Regular weight. This helps hold the piece in place until I can sew it. It's very easy to use. Larger pieces like the one above are sewn using a fairly tight zig zag stitch. For small ones I just use a straight stitch around the perimiter.

This is a sample of the different appliques I used in this particular quilt. Some are very tiny and some cover just about the entire block.

Next time I'll show you how I frame the blocks so that the seams can be ragged.

THE MAKING OF A BABY CLOTHES QUILT part 2

Back for part 2 of the holiday baby clothes quilt show. I apologize for the delay, but I'll explain that in another blog. You'll understand. Ok, back to the quilt. This picture shows the opened garment with my 6.5" ruler, getting ready to cut a block.

Here's the cut block. It's really quite easy on the solid pieces. The blocks don't always come out exactly perfect, but that's ok.

When cutting out the blocks with a print or embroidery,I like to have the embellishment centered, but that isn't always possible.

Most tshirts have the picture or whatever, closer to the neck so the picture ends up on the upper portion of the block like this one. I just try to crowd the ruler as close to the ribbing on the neck as possible.  Even if  you get a part of the ribbing, you can later remove it and that portion will end up in the seam allowance of the framing. More about that later.

When the embellishment is on a part of the garment that can't be cut into a 6.5" block, I cut a block from another part of the garment and then cut around the embellishment. This will be part will be trimmed down and appliqued to the block at a later time. Sometimes I even have to use another garment for the background block like when I'm using the embellishment from a bib that doesn't have anything big enough for a block.

Here are a couple more examples. I try to cut the applique as big as I can. If I can cut a piece that's the same width as the block, it makes things a lot easier and looks better with less stitching involved. But sometimes you just have to go small. It all depends on the applique, its size and how it's located on the garment.

Each of these quilts offers it's own challenges and opportunities to learn something new. I guess that's why I like making them. They are each truely one of a kind.

On the next installment I'll talk about fusing stabilizer to the blocks and preparing the appliques.

NEW BABY CLOTHES QUILT

I just finished another baby clothes quilt and I think it's the best one yet! Of course I feel that way about just about every project. My client and I had to compromise on the backing color and I think it turned out great. My client wanted green as it's the recipient's favorite color, but I thought blue would be better as most of the fabrics were in or had some shade of blue. So we compromised by using both and I just love it!!!

One of my favorite things about making these quilts is making appliques out of some of the embroidery on these clothes. I also try to transfer any cute little pockets, too. So much fun!

Here are some pictures of the quilt. And, of course, it's even better in person!

front

Love the dinosaur!!

Pockets and puppies

Back

I'm now working on one more quilt for this wonderful client and this one is for a girl with lovely shades of pink. I'm hoping to get it finished by the end of the weekend and will post pics as soon as I can.