Hey there friend!
For a while now I've been having a ton of fun quilting. I've made rag quilts, baby quilts, big quilts, and lap quilts in all kinds of colors and designs. Some were for family, a few I made and donated to adoption fundraisers and once or twice now I've sold them for a small profit.
Today, I'd like to share with you about two special quilts I'm making for my cousin. Thought I'd share a couple of pictures I've taken of the process as well.
Anyways, quite a while ago I got a Facebook message asking me if I could make a quilt for her. She had a wonderful idea of having a quilt made from her daughter's baby blankets. Of course I said, "Yes!".
Once she found where she had stored the baby blankets (her daughter is now a beautiful and sweet teenager), she packed them up and mailed them to me to {in her words} "do my magic".
Whoa! The pressure is on.
No pressure from her. She is very laid back about the whole thing. Says she wouldn't know where to start to figure out a pattern and design. That's ok since I love that part as much as the quilting. And as far as a time frame - she says, "no worries".
But for me? Well, yea, there's a bit of pressure. I mean the first step is to cut these blankets into pieces. Chop up the very blankets that kept her baby girl, her first born, all snugly warm and comfy.
Plus, she would like to see if there would be enough fabric from the blankets to make not one quilt, but two. One "as large as I can make" and one "baby" size.
I think that's a great idea! I truly do. However, there's not much room for error when I measure out and begin cutting for the first one or there won't be enough left for the other. It's not like I can go to a fabric store to get more of the fabric if I happen to measure incorrectly. Yikes!
When I received the box and peeked inside I saw seven receiving blankets.
One blanket was pale yellow with an applique of a bird and bird house in one corner. The other six colorful blankets had a different pattern on each side. Each side's color scheme coordinated perfectly with the other side.
After a little testing I found that the two sides would come apart nicely once I removed the binding along the edges. It would be easy to turn six blankets into twelve pieces of fabric to work with. Whaa laaa!
However, now I had to figure out a way to coordinate all the different colors and patterns together into the new quilts. There were blues, pinks, purple, peach, red and yellow.
There was also at least one or two (ok maybe three) nervous messages back and forth on Facebook with my cuz.
Was she sure?
Can I add other fabrics?
What kind of fabric?
Solid or patterned?
What about the back of the quilt?
Solid or patterned?
What color?
She sweetly told me again to just do my magic. She's a southern gal and was probably really thinking, "Well, just bless her heart."
Once I got all that nonsense out of the way and after a deep breath, it was time to start trimming off the bindings and separating fronts from backs.
And now there are 14 rectangles of fabric and all those loose cut off bindings.
Whew! There's no turning back now.
A bit more measuring and then ironing on some stabilizer stuff to the back of each piece. Don't want the squares to be all wonky and uneven.
And let the cutting of squares begin!
Squares, rectangles and more squares.
Now time to actually start piecing and sewing and quilting. Oh my!
For the baby blanket size -
I used one each of the twelve different patterns for the center making four blocks. I then framed that with some dark blue denim. Added a border of the pale yellow around that. Next, I added another frame of small squares of each pattern with light blue denim in the corners.
I appliqued the birdie to one corner. And finished the whole thing off with a wide strip of dark blue denim.
For the backing I used a soft cotton in (what I'd call) a very light tea stained color. It has a light and airy design of tiny flowers and vines.
I turned over the denim from the front to make a border on the back.
And that's it! Whaa laaa!!!
I did it! And I had a blast. It was a joy to make this for my cousin.
From the planning and measuring - to the trimming and cutting - to the sewing together the blocks and rows. Then finally quilting it all together. It's creatively fun stuff.
I love when I finish a quilt and see how pretty it is. Yet I usually feel kinda sorry it's done. Like finishing a really good book and not wanting the story to end.
But, it's ok because I still have lots of work to do on the big quilt. I already have everything planned, measured and cut. Even have a few rows pieced and sewn together. Yay!
All I'm gonna share for now is that it's gonna be similar, but different from the baby quilt. Ha!
That tells you a lot, doesn't it?
OK, so it'll have a different design using the same twelve patterns from the six quilts. The backing will be different, but similar.
Will there be denim? Well, ....... ummm ...... maybe. *wink*
Guess you'll have to wait for the pictures when it's all done and I've worked my magic once again.
