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?

Around the Neighborhood Quilt

We’ve all done it. We’ve walked into a quilt shop in search of one piece to finish your current project, and something catches our eye. Could be the latest bundle of fabrics that just arrived, or a collection of fat quarters that you’ve had your eye on. In my case, it’s always the sale corner. I CAN NOT resist the sale corner. Beautiful quilting fabrics for $6/yard? Yes please!!

I found this cute set of fabrics calling to me in the sale room. There was a blue print with little houses, kites, hopscotch, and pathways along with a green print with pets doing all sorts of cute things around picket fences. I had no idea what I was going to do with it, but I was confident this fabric needed to be in a quilt.

 

Even though there were only two prints, they were busy and had lots of things going on. I decided to fussy cut the blue fabric so that each snowball block had something different going on. Then, I decided to use the green print as the “pathways” through the neighborhood. I framed the snowballs with white to add some contrast.

 

Once it was pieced together, I decided to use a bold red for the backing and the binding as a strong contrast color. For the quilting, I wanted to practice my elongated meander in a circular pattern. I wanted to keep going with the “path” idea, and thought it looked a lot like a maze in the hedges.

 

Finally, I attached one of my tags to it and finished the binding with a hand stitch. I was ready to declare this project done. But, alas, I had scraps, including a bunch of small half-triangle squares. They needed completion too.  

 

I sewed them together as a center of a small wall hanging, but it was a little too small. I added the last of the green print and blue print as an oversized border that is framed with thin strips of white.

 

I used the same red on the backing and the binding as I did on the bigger quilt, and hand stitched the binding. It pulled a bit when I was quilting (a risk of working with that many small half-triangle squares). It gave the quilt a slightly rolled look. That’s a bummer but I love how it turned out. This is a nursery set with the larger quilt measuring 45 x 65 and the smaller one measuring 25 x 35.

Hopefully someday someone will get to enjoy it. Until then, I continue working on new projects, and continue to be tempted by fabrics in the sale corner.

Quarantine UFO Series #4, Rainbow Fruit Quilt and Trivet

Rainbow Fruit Quilt

Every time I go into a fabric store and see fabrics with fruits and veggies, I was mesmerized by their color. I love the richness and amazing variety! I was collecting pieces until I had enough to make my fruit and veggie basket quilt. I actually ended up with enough blocks to make 2 smaller quilts, and a bunch of scraps. I just couldn’t let any of it go, and of course, had to find new projects for it.

I made a 12 inch block with the leftover ½ triangle squares that created a wonderful rainbow look. It was put away, like so many other projects I had been working on, and forgotten. As I worked through my UFO pile, I started to venture into my “lost blocks” pile, which is where I found the rainbow block. I pulled it out, along with the scraps, and tried to figure out how I can use this stuff up. I tried and tried, and couldn’t figure out what to do. I was chatting with the hubby about it and he asked why I needed to keep that block in the quilt if I had enough fabric to make a new one? Huh, good point!

I took the block out and started to layout the leftover pieces. I came up with a rainbow style layout creating a real pop of color. I set it on a black background, bringing the colors out even more, and then used the last of the scraps to create an off-set border.

So… then I needed a backing. I went into my stash and found a picnic table pattern with ants crawling on it. Could NOT be more perfect! My daughter saw it and said she wanted a face mask made with it. As much as I loved that idea, I needed all of it to make the backing. I trimmed it with a little black to get to the size I needed. Worked excellent!

The quilting was a simple straight stitch crosshatch on the rainbow element and then a basic meander on the black. It keeps the attention on the colors and rainbow style. I’m really happy with how this turned out. I’m so glad I saved these fabrics, and thought outside the box to create this.

Of course, the block that started this project was still unaccounted for. I decided to make a simple trivet with it. I used the very last of the scraps to make a patchwork backing and used a simple straight stitch for quilting. It is now gracing my counter with its bold colors and providing function when I pull something out of the oven.

And with that, I have yet another project finished. Love how I’ve been able to clean through my fabric stash and unfinished projects at the same time.

Of course, going into the UFO block pile opened a door, and now I have more projects I want to get to work on. Let’s see...