A Baby Boy Quilt and a Peek at my Quilting Process

It's been about a year since I made a quilt and I was excited to jump back in for a baby quilt for a new babe in the extended family. This is not my best quilt craft-wise (the squares don't all line up), but definitely one of my favorites design-wise. I love the fabric I used for the binding (which I also used for my nephew's quilt) and also love the color combo of the pieces used for the front.

I use mostly the same process for all my triangle quilts. First, I cut out 64 - 6"x6" squares. I had a lot of counting help from Cora... along with lots of chatting about the baby. Next, I match up the squares, pin them, and draw a line down diagonally across the square. I use this line as a reference point and sew lines down both sides of that diagonal line. After sewing both sides, I cut down the drawn line and I have two squares complete. 

After completing all the squares, I lay them out in the chevron/herringbone pattern then stare at the layout for about 15-30 minutes. Depending on what I want for each quilt, I spend a lot of time rearranging the squares. For this quilt, I didn't want any of the same color touching and spent a lot of time making sure each color is balanced and spread out among the quilt front. Once I settle on an arrangement, I give it a little bit of time to make sure my eye isn't getting stuck on one particular place. This is probably my favorite part of the process.

When the layout if finalized, I pin the rows and write a little 1^, 2^, 3^...  on the back of each row so I know where is lines up on the quilt. Then I get to sewing that all together. When the front is finished, I always feel accomplished... until I remember how much more work that I still need to do.

Once the quilt is finished AND IRONED, I will baste the quilt (pinning the front, batting, and back together). My process for this varies, but lately I have been taping down each layer by the corner. I work my way pinning from middle to edges while constantly smoothing out and making sure it's as wrinkle-free as possible... then comes the quilting.

For this quilt pattern, I like to work in vertical stripes and a chevron pattern which looks like herringbone on the back. Because I like the way it looks when I do two lines of stitches, it takes twice as long as it probably should take to quilt the blanket.

I trim off the excess batting and fabric, then start working on the binding. I like a thick binding, so I start with strips of fabric about four inches wide. I fold the two sides in and iron through the entire strip, then fold it in half and iron again. I pin the batting around the edge of the blanket and double stitch it together. 

Once the binding is done, it's time for a quick wash! This part is a little nerve-wracking (I'm always worried the entire thing will just fall apart), but I love the way the quilts come out all wrinkly when they're finished. 

My little model was not happy about holding up the quilt for me.

Throughout the whole process, I spend my time picturing the sweet baby using the blanket and I make sure to send the baby and momma little prayers and good vibes.

Scrap Quilt

My fabric stash is being overrun with scraps from my previous quilts, so I thought I'd start a little quilt from the scraps. It was fun to try something new and not worry about measuring (which already isn't my strong suit). These are all scraps from the quilts I made for some of my favorite babies/toddlers, so it is really special to look at this and think of each and every baby. It's a little smaller than my usual quilts, so it's perfect to throw over Ida in the pumpkin seat to carry around on errands.

It took a couple of blocks of time to make the front, then the rest of the quilt took me an hour or two to complete. I'm not normally into scrappy pieces, but I'm loving how there are so many different spots throughout the quilt that I love. The longer I look at it, the more favorite little spots I find.

Grandma Flower Quilt

This quilt was one of my longest works in progress. I was feeling the urge to sew one weekend two years ago and broke out some of my grandma's old fabric. I picked some pieces from my stash and bought a couple more colors of fabric to coordinate. I spent one day cutting out and sewing the front pieces together.

I tried a new (to me) herringbone pattern to quilt the front and back together.  I love the double stitching and the pink contrast on the black fabric.  I'm pretty sure there is a way to do double stitching on a machine, but I just go over it twice and will learn how to do that some day.

This is where I got hung up for a while.  I didn't know what color binding I wanted to do and some other projects, so this project got pushed to the back burner. Recently, I had some downtime between projects and finally decided I should finish this piece. A pink I had in my stash was perfect for this quilt and I finished it in one evening.

I can't wait to see a little baby wrapped up in this quilt.

A Quick Baby Quilt

Ben called me at work one day and excitedly announced we would get to meet our nephew. He is a similar age to my sister's son, but we haven't met him yet and only received a couple of pictures. Ben asked if I made him a quilt yet.  I hadn't, so I needed to get to work.  I decided to just do a quick striped design (simple and manly, but still fun and bold) with some plain fabrics I had on stash.

I was able to sew the front, baste, and quilt the blanket all in one evening. I'm loving this quick and easy design and I definitely think I'll be making it again with different color/pattern combinations.

I used Henry Alexander Casa Azul in Pool for the binding (purchased from BobbieLouFabric) and finished that up the following evening. I'm loving the outcome and I can't wait to see our nephew using this quilt. We met him over the weekend and it was fun seeing him open our gifts and run around with Cora.