NEW QUILT: CRABS AND BEARS AND DUCKS, OH MY!

I know, I know!! I've neglected my blog severely! I do have a good excuse, but in this post I want to show off my latest baby clothes quilt. The clothes my client supplied were just so cute with all sorts of adorable animals including a number of surprisingly sweet crabs.

There were also a number of bears and ducks and even a monkey or two plus some superhero vibe with Batman and Superman. The clothes were definitely representative of a typical boy.

For this quilt the client wanted to select her own fabric for the back and the block framing and she did a really good job. For the back we used a white on brown polka dot. The blocks were framed with a coordinating brown on white polka dot. 



I do love polka dots; I think they are fun and sweet and young without being childish. Don't you think the polka dots are perfect for this quilt?

I know this quilt will be treasured for many years to come and I'm so proud to have had the chance to work on it.

THE MAKING OF A BABY CLOTHES QUILT - part 5

Today I'll show you how I trim the framed blocks and assemble the "sandwiches". It's all sewing from here on.

The finished blocks need to be 9.5" square so I use my handy-dandy 9.5" square ruler to trim all the blocks. This ensures that all the blocks are the same size and have a straight edge all the way around. It's pretty easy if you find the center of each side and align the 4.75" mark with them. I center everything on the clothing square.

On this quilt I used two layers of flannel on the back. I always use one layer for the middle, but this customer wanted an especially cuddly quilt so we went with flannel for the back layer, too.

After assembling the "sammies" I put a couple of pins in to keep everything in line until they can be sewn together.

Then I stitch around the "ditch" where the frame is sewn to the square. This makes the stitching about invisible on the front. And it makes a nice square pattern on the back. Usually a rag quilt is sewn with an X, but that won't work with this type of quilt.

In the final installment, I'll show how I sew the blocks together and you can see the completed quilt. Thanks for your interest in this process and my quilts.

BABY CLOTHES QUILT WITH BROWN

When my customer chose brown for the color of the backing and framing for this quilt I was hesitant. The quilt was for her mom and her mom's decor was brown! Soooo, out I went searching for something brown that would go with the colors in the quilt.

I found this beautiful milk chocolate color fabric with polka dots in all the colors that were in the quilt! I couldn't believe how the brown brought out all the pinks, blues and yellows so well.

And the white flannel in the middle toned the bloom down just enought. I think it came out very nicely, don't you?

I just know that mom is going to be thrilled with this lapsized quilt. It not only has blocks from her daughter's baby clothes, but also her grandchildren's baby clothes.

Something else I did differently on this quilt was to group the four-patch blocks by color as much as I could. You know, pinks with pinks, blues with blues, etc. I really like it better than the random piecing. Anyway, I'm very happy with this quilt. It's already on it's way to my customer. I hope she and her mom enjoy it!

LATEST BABY CLOTHES QUILT

I just put my latest baby clothes quilt in the mail to my customer. Every quilt project is different and has it's own challenges. This quilt includes a lot of older baby clothes belonging to the customer as well as garments that her children had worn. Some of the older garments required a bit different handling than the newer ones. I know that this quilt will bring back a lot of memories for this super customer.


I appliqued a number of pieces from items that weren't big enough for their own blocks. I love this one from a daughter's baby underwear. Sooo cute!

This is another piece from her son's items. A hat, I believe. I cut a circle of the fabric and appliqued it to some matching solid fabric.

I backed the quilt with some nifty fabric from Debbie Mumm. It picks up the different colors from the clothing and has a nice pattern. It also made the bloom very pretty.

Stay tuned as I will be doing other quilts for this customer using a great variety of garments.