My Babies Blankets Quilt

I am one of the many people in the crafting world that sets aside baby clothes and other memorabilia with the intent of creating memory quilts. But, like many others, the ideas get tabled and the beautiful items get buried in the depths of daily life. My children have gotten into grade school now and are long past the use or need for flannel nursery blankets. Still, I couldn’t get rid of them because of the memories for me so I stashed them away until I could “find the right project”.

 

January of 2018, we received news that my sister was expecting her first daughter. I was so excited to pass on some of our favorite clothing pieces and other useful items. I pulled all of the goodies out of the closet, and started sifting. I came across the stack of flannel receiving blankets I’d tucked away. I used them in the basinet when they first came home from the hospital as a burp cloth for the first couple of months.  Their age showed in the yellowed spots left behind even after laundering them, but they were perfect to me.

 

I decided to use them to make a reversible quilt for myself. One side would have pieces from my sons blankets, and the other side with pieces from my daughters. I kept it simple with 4” squares, and carefully laid them out to make sure a random appearance emerged. The green blanket appears on both sides as it was a color I used with both them.

 

For the quilting, I pinned the tops together back to back, making sure they lined up, and used a simple meander all over. I found some white and green plaid flannel fabric that tied the two sides together to use for the binding. Of course, I also added a date tag; good thing too. I would have forgotten when I did this had I not put a dated tag on it.

 

Later, I was going through my daughter’s doll stuff and found a couple more flannel receiving blankets I wish I’d known about before. Since the quilt was done, I decided it needed a bag to store it in for protection. The final blankets worked perfect, and now the project is complete. I have a wonderful memorabilia blanket to cherish as my kiddos grow up. Who knows; maybe I’ll get to pull it out as a playmat when I’m a grandma. A girl can hope, right?