Spring Baby Quilts

Last month I got to play with a pretty spring fabric palette to stitch up two baby quilts for imminent arrivals.

For my cousin's baby I cut some charm squares from my stash and whipped up a Charm Pack Quilt.  You can find the details for this quilt here on an earlier post.  This is a great stash buster and given that I've not been doing much fabric shopping it was great to be able to use three different white on white prints from my stash for all the various borders because I didn't have a big enough piece in just a single print or solid.  I do love being able to raid my stash and still coming up with something pretty.

Believe it or not, I still haven't finished this one yet.  It's currently taken up residence on the back of a dining chair waiting for me to finish hand-stitching the last section of the binding.  So close!  I'll pop up a pic when I finally do get it over the line.

The other baby quilt is for someone who has made a BIG difference in Miss CT's little life.  Susan, CT's habilitation worker from Guide Dogs, is expecting (may even have had) her own first little bundle of joy.  I think everybody needs a Susan in their lives.  She is such a ray of sunshine and just what any family adapting to life with their child's visual impairment needs.  We have been so blessed to have her support for four years now, so I really wanted to make a special quilt as a way of thanking her at least a little for all she has done.  

Given that Susan is a complete ray of sunshine, what better quilt to make her new arrival than Lori Holt's 'You Are My Sunshine' quilt?  This is a pattern in Lori's Spelling Bee quilt and I'm delighted to have had a very lovely excuse to stitch it.  You can see it got some wavy line quilting treatment.  I'm not sure who was smiling more when I handed it over, me or Susan!!

So you see, it's not all cross-stitching around these parts.  It just looks that way ;-)

Cute quilts finished

Last time I showed you my baby quilt options they were just pretty flimsies.  Since they are only little quilts (about 36.5" x 38.5") finishing them off with quilting and binding didn't take too long.

I quilted straight lines either side of the horizontal seams and knew in my quilty-heart that it really needed a touch of perle hand-stitching to lift the boats/hearts panels for an extra special touch.  So I auditioned colours and threaded up the needle.

I really enjoy stitching with perle and knew with these early stitches that I would love it.

It's not fancy

but it does a great job lifting the hearts and sail boats off the background.

Here are the finishes -

Sigh!

In my last post I mentioned that I had been very indecisive about choosing backing fabric for the girl quilt.  I should add that I've been trying to use what I already have in my stash rather than buy more so my options were more limited than they otherwise might have been.  In the end, with the help of a majority vote on IG, I decided that I would use the green bake sale floral for a bit of contrast and finish with the pale pink large polka spot binding.  I think it worked out well.

There were no such problems choosing the backing for the boy quilt as I had just enough of the alphabet print to cover it, and of course and orange polka dot binding just set it all off beautifully.

I can't decide which quilt I love more.  For a minute or two I think I love the bright, cheery sail boats best and then I look at the sweet, soft cuteness of the hearts and well ... maybe it's the hormones!  I suppose at least I don't actually have to decide which I like best as baby's arrival in the summer will determine which one we use.  In the meantime, you might find me occasionally stroking both of them with fondness!

Options

Those of you on IG will already know that I dropped in a little news recently that a new arrival is expected here this summer.  I'm going to blame the hormonal fluctuations of my pregnancy for my inability to stay focussed on my stitching plans and encouraging me to flit from project to project lately.

One of the flits led to fabric pulls for very small baby quilts in preparation for our new family addition.

I really was only intending to pull fabric to hold aside.  I didn't plan to actually make the quilt tops but I couldn't help myself.  Those fabrics just looked to good to leave unworked - esp those wee foxes!

Totally inspired by this quilt on Pinterest I set to work chopping up little bricks 3" wide and of varying lengths.

Then, I paper pieced some little sail boats, forgetting as a I drafted my pattern than I should have done so in reverse.  Aw well, my boats are just sailing in a different direction but I'm sure the baby will never know.

This little quilt top measures 36.5" x 38.5" just big enough for a car seat, crib or a pram cover and I LOVE it!!!!

Once that was done, I couldn't wait to whip up a similar girl option because I don't know which I'm having and our Health Trust has a policy of not disclosing the baby's gender.

Back to the stash and I chose pretty pastels this time

and made little 6" versions of my Bee Blessed heart tutorial to replace the sailboats.  Aren't they sweet?

I love this one too

and some of the fabrics I included are really cute!

I have basted the quilts (after some dithering deliberation over backing fabrics for the girl quilt) and they are now ready for quilting when I get some more time at my machine.  Since they are only little I don't think it will take too long and then I will have the option of either quilt to cosy our newborn in when the time comes!  Which is probably a good job because I have no idea when I'll find time to sew after he or she arrives!

Bee-ing busy

If you've read Judith's Words Post from last weekend you'll know that she and I have been piecing words together for a Bee Blessed nominee.  The intended recipient of this quilt had a skiing accident at the end of 2012 and is now fighting paralysis in his legs.  From all that we have heard of him, he's a fighter and an inspiration and we really do long for healing for this young, active man.  The quilt we have in mind will have words of encouragement which have been specifically chosen to fit what we have learned of him.

To the words I pieced last week - hope, joy and inspire - and to Judith's very relevant words - peace and faith - I have added one more:

Hopefully, these words will be a blessing at this unexpectedly difficult time in this young man's life. Now we have to work a little more magic and make these words into an interesting quilt top.  Back with more soon I hope.

At Bee Blessed we have also been donated a number of fabric panels, so this weekend I picked up a couple and tried to prepare them a little for the group to work on next time we meet.  I'm hoping that this jolly little gardener girl panel will make a happy little pram quilt for our donations.  There isn't much to do with this panel except quilt it nicely, but I did open up a donated butterfly pillowcase and piece some extra fabric to bring it to size to make a backing.  I just love those bright, vibrant butterflies and think they compliment the front panel so nicely.

The central panel of this baby quilt top was also generously donated to us and I thought that it would make a great baby girl pram quilt if we could enlarge it a little.  I like picking up these wee projects and trying to work out how to make something from what we've got.  I enjoy the challenge, though sometimes it's a bit of a risk.  At one point I feared this was going to be a pepto bismol coloured fiasco.  Although it remains much pinker than I'm used to, I think I managed to diffuse the bubblegum kona a little with the addition of those primary coloured wonky stars.  Oh, how I do enjoy making wonky stars!  They are really fun, and some of these ones have actual wonky bits this time!

So there you have it, a wee bit of me bee-ing busy!