One of my best friends is having baby #2 any day now. Perhaps as I type this. When she had baby #1 a few years ago, I made my first baby quilt. And I fell in love. Quilting is delightful, applique shapes are whimsical, and it's possible that I love nothing more than I love fabrics. I love cozy flannel and exquisite minky, and I am obsessed with florals mixed with polka-dots, mixed with paisley. I could die in a fabric store, and not be one bit sad.
For this quilt, I chose a periwinkle flannel for the background, and eight different fat minis to make the tree, leaves and birds out of. I picked up a super soft tan couch blanket at Ross for $10 to back the quilt with. THRIFTY CRAFTER TIP: MINKY, AND OTHER SUPER SOFT FABRIC COSTS A LOT. YOU CAN GET MORE FABRIC, THAT'S JUST AS SOFT, AT ROSS OT TJ MAX FOR A FRACTION OF THE PRICE.
To make the quilt, I sketched the tree, and different bird silhouettes on to a paper bag. Once I was happy, I traced all of shapes onto an iron on fabric adhesive. (I pinned all of the applique onto my last quilt, and was often frustrated by the amount that they shifted while I was sewing them on.) SMART CRAFTER TIP: LOOK CLOSELY AT THE ADHESIVE YOU ARE BUYING. IF IT SAYS NO SEW, BELIEVE IT! YOU ACTUALLY CAN'T SEW THROUGH THIS STUFF. Unfortunately, I didn't look closely enough. After tracing all my shapes, and ironing them on to all the fabric, cutting them all out, and ironing them all into place on my flannel, I realized I couldn't use my sewing machine to sew it all down. Grr.
Luckily this gave me the opportunity to learn to hand embroider. It is so much easier to sew it all down with a sewing machine, but 100's of hours spent hand embroidering was fun too. And it looked lovely. And it is SO filled with love.
I used all of the left over fabrics cut into blocks to sew a border. I sewed the super soft backing on (no need for batting, because the backing fabric is so thick). And then a "quilted" them together with a running stitch all the way around the border, and then all around the tree.
Welcome to the world little one!
To make the quilt, I sketched the tree, and different bird silhouettes on to a paper bag. Once I was happy, I traced all of shapes onto an iron on fabric adhesive. (I pinned all of the applique onto my last quilt, and was often frustrated by the amount that they shifted while I was sewing them on.) SMART CRAFTER TIP: LOOK CLOSELY AT THE ADHESIVE YOU ARE BUYING. IF IT SAYS NO SEW, BELIEVE IT! YOU ACTUALLY CAN'T SEW THROUGH THIS STUFF. Unfortunately, I didn't look closely enough. After tracing all my shapes, and ironing them on to all the fabric, cutting them all out, and ironing them all into place on my flannel, I realized I couldn't use my sewing machine to sew it all down. Grr.
Luckily this gave me the opportunity to learn to hand embroider. It is so much easier to sew it all down with a sewing machine, but 100's of hours spent hand embroidering was fun too. And it looked lovely. And it is SO filled with love.
I used all of the left over fabrics cut into blocks to sew a border. I sewed the super soft backing on (no need for batting, because the backing fabric is so thick). And then a "quilted" them together with a running stitch all the way around the border, and then all around the tree.
Welcome to the world little one!
I love this quilt. Do you have to be a baby (or have a baby) to get one? Cause I love it. If you do have to be a baby or have a baby, I'll tell Greg to get on it so we can get a nice Erin Quilt.
ReplyDeleteYea, tell Greg to get on it.
ReplyDelete