Baby Quilt

Our friends across the street welcomed their third son into the world last month, and the kids and I decided to make a baby quilt for him.  I let the kids go digging through all my fabric and pick out colors and textures they thought would be appropriate for a baby boy.

Originally I was going to do this appliqued extravaganza, using about 50 different cookie cutter shapes the kids had selected. 

Then I snapped out of it and decided on something simpler and, ultimately, much more personal and special.

I had each of my kids draw four animal pictures on a large sheet of newsprint in pencil, and I traced over their lines with a black Sharpie.  Then I cut the sheet of paper into a square (or close enough) for each creature.

Alex, of course, drew dinosaurs.  From left to right, they are a T. Rex, a Triceratops, an Ankylosaurus, and (I think) a Diplodocus.

 
And Julia drew an assortment of creatures.  Clockwise starting at the top left:  A lion, a giraffe, a bear, and a dog.

 
Next, I cut squares out of unbleached muslin, set them over each paper square and traced each creature.  Then I gave the fabric squares and a supply of fabric markers to the kids and told them to color the animals and create some nice backgrounds or settings as well.  Then we selected fabrics to use for the borders as well.

And here are the results:

Julia helped me pin the border pieces onto each square,

 
I ran them through the sewing machine, and then, after an all-important nail polish break,

 

Julia took the pins out.

 
I appliqued two squares to represent the family members.  Using cookie cutters, I made a mother and a father for one of the squares, and three brothers for the other.  Then I set the squares out, pinned and stitched rows together as much as I could, and waited for the baby to arrive so I could do the center block.  For that I stitched some hearts and the baby's name and date of birth.

Then I tied the layers together with ribbon, stitched the border on, and the quilt was done!

 
(Sorry I don't have a better picture of the finished quilt - I took this one right before the kids brought it across the street.

So that's one of my recent sewing projects.  And now that I've got my whole work area reorganized, I anticipate plenty more.  Yay!

Comments

[Jenny]

That is great!

[Tracie]

What a beautiful idea! The kids made it extra special.

[Apartmentkitchen.wordpress.com]

Oh wow, that is so adorable!

I always thought that would be a great idea for a wedding too. At the reception have a bunch of squares of muslin laid out with some different colored Sharpies and have people write on them instead of a guest book.

I bet they absolutely loved it!