Greetings, Quilters-
Baby quilts are quite fun to make, especially when you start with already-quilted fabric!
It seemed like all of my friends were having babies around the same time I was. Not really too much of a coincidence, since we were all about the same age, and got married about the same time.
So, with one baby myself, and having completed a couple of quilts already, I understood the pleasure of having a baby quilt, and also understood the meaning of using a baby quilt.
First, it is a truly amazing thing to think that someone loves you enough to spend hours and hours creating a special gift for a new baby. Especially knowing what babies do - throw up, pee, chew, and roll around. And they don't seem to care what they do it on or to.
That's where the understanding of how babies use a quilt helps determine the design. It also helps to know whether the mom will appreciate the quilt and use it carefully, or whether she will use it the same way as a blanket purchased at Walmart.
Of course, babies need blankets, and quilters love to make quilts. So why not make a quilt that a baby can use, throw up on, pee on, chew on, and roll around on?
One of my dear friends was having a baby, and I wasn't sure about how she would use the quilt, so I scouted possibilities at the local fabric shop. I discovered fabrics that were already quilted. Solid fabrics in nice colors. So, I purchased a baby yellow quilted fabric, and found some big pictures to use as templates for an applique design on the quilt. I'm sure the options are much wider today.
This was a very simple design - a kitty sniffing a ladybug that was resting on a flower plant's leaf, and a sun up in the sky.
I pressed fusible interfacing to each of the pieces to make my sewing easier, and in a quick few hours, the project was complete.
Applique looks pretty easy, and it really is. There are a couple of things to keep in mind that will make yours easy and look great once completed:
Plan your design carefully and cut out all of the fabric pieces before you start sewing. For the best finished design, your pieces should overlap each other. The first applique I made, I tried to have the pieces just meet. That was a huge mistake! They never match up exactly, and I ended up with frayed edges and a mess.
I iron a very light weight fusible interfacingto the back of my fabric pieces. Then I draw the pattern on the fabric and cut it out. You could use a double sided fusible interfacing. This will help keep the pieces in place as you sew. It may cause the finished quilt to be a little stiffer - something to check out.
Lay out the pieces on your background fabric as you want them in your finished design. Do not iron them in place at this time.
Lightly draw an outline of the finished design on your background fabric. This will serve as a guide as you are sewing the individual pieces.
Remove the pieces from the background fabric and place them in an independent resting place. This could be an ironing board, table, or pile in your sewing area. I like to have mine organized like they will be sewn, so it is easier for me to see what the next piece is.
Find the bottom-most piece. This will be the first piece you sew. In the quilt above, for the cat, the bottom-most piece was his tail.
Once found and placed on your background fabric, sew it on.
Tip #1 - this is where the outline on your background fabric will come in handy.
Tip #2 - I use thread that matches the fabric I am sewing on the top for my applique. The bobbin thread stays the same color, and matches the bottom fabric.
Tip #3 - I adjust the tension on my machine so that most of the top thread goes around to the back and the bobbin thread is almost a straight thread running throuh a tunnel of top thread.
Tip #4 - I use something stiff under my background fabric to allow the fabric to slide through the machine without getting guided by the feed dogs. Long ago, I used plain paper, and that still works. There is also a woven material, much like a non-fusible interfacing, that you can use. One piece that is the size of the whole design seems to work the best.
Identify the next lowest piece, and place it on top of the piece just sewn. Sew this piece in place. If this fabric is a different color from the previous one, you may wish to change your top thread.
Continue stacking and sewing until your design is finished.
If you have used paper on the back of your design, now is the time to rip it out.
You're done!
Once I had all of the design pieces sewn on and the paper ripped out, I put a quick binding on. This binding was a store-bought double wide bias binding, that was made for quilts. It is about 1" on each side - so it is really extra wide. I machine stitched the binding on the front, folded it over to the back, and then hand stitched it closed on the back. After all, I did want something about this baby quilt to be hand stitched.
My friend, Roberta, loved her new baby quilt, and her baby, Hilary enjoyed it as well. What's really fun about this quilt is that Roberta had never really thought about making quilts. With this gift and the passage of some time, she, too, decided to take up quilting. Now not only do we share stories of our kids, but we share stories of our quilts!
You just never know where your passion for quilting will take you and / or your friends.
Happy Quilting!
Penny Halgren
www.How-to-Quilt.com
Inspiration and Education for Beginning Quilters
www.Rag-Quilt-Instructions.com
Fast, Fun and Funky Quilts
©2006, Penny Halgren
Penny is a quilter of more than 24 years who seeks to interest new quilters and provide them with the resources they need to create beautiful quilts.
This article courtesy of http://www.How-to-Quilt.com.
You may freely reprint this article on your website or in your newsletter provided this courtesy notice and the author name and URL remain intact.
Baby quilts are quite fun to make, especially when you start with already-quilted fabric!
It seemed like all of my friends were having babies around the same time I was. Not really too much of a coincidence, since we were all about the same age, and got married about the same time.
So, with one baby myself, and having completed a couple of quilts already, I understood the pleasure of having a baby quilt, and also understood the meaning of using a baby quilt.
First, it is a truly amazing thing to think that someone loves you enough to spend hours and hours creating a special gift for a new baby. Especially knowing what babies do - throw up, pee, chew, and roll around. And they don't seem to care what they do it on or to.
That's where the understanding of how babies use a quilt helps determine the design. It also helps to know whether the mom will appreciate the quilt and use it carefully, or whether she will use it the same way as a blanket purchased at Walmart.
Of course, babies need blankets, and quilters love to make quilts. So why not make a quilt that a baby can use, throw up on, pee on, chew on, and roll around on?
One of my dear friends was having a baby, and I wasn't sure about how she would use the quilt, so I scouted possibilities at the local fabric shop. I discovered fabrics that were already quilted. Solid fabrics in nice colors. So, I purchased a baby yellow quilted fabric, and found some big pictures to use as templates for an applique design on the quilt. I'm sure the options are much wider today.
This was a very simple design - a kitty sniffing a ladybug that was resting on a flower plant's leaf, and a sun up in the sky.
I pressed fusible interfacing to each of the pieces to make my sewing easier, and in a quick few hours, the project was complete.
Applique looks pretty easy, and it really is. There are a couple of things to keep in mind that will make yours easy and look great once completed:
Plan your design carefully and cut out all of the fabric pieces before you start sewing. For the best finished design, your pieces should overlap each other. The first applique I made, I tried to have the pieces just meet. That was a huge mistake! They never match up exactly, and I ended up with frayed edges and a mess.
I iron a very light weight fusible interfacingto the back of my fabric pieces. Then I draw the pattern on the fabric and cut it out. You could use a double sided fusible interfacing. This will help keep the pieces in place as you sew. It may cause the finished quilt to be a little stiffer - something to check out.
Lay out the pieces on your background fabric as you want them in your finished design. Do not iron them in place at this time.
Lightly draw an outline of the finished design on your background fabric. This will serve as a guide as you are sewing the individual pieces.
Remove the pieces from the background fabric and place them in an independent resting place. This could be an ironing board, table, or pile in your sewing area. I like to have mine organized like they will be sewn, so it is easier for me to see what the next piece is.
Find the bottom-most piece. This will be the first piece you sew. In the quilt above, for the cat, the bottom-most piece was his tail.
Once found and placed on your background fabric, sew it on.
Tip #1 - this is where the outline on your background fabric will come in handy.
Tip #2 - I use thread that matches the fabric I am sewing on the top for my applique. The bobbin thread stays the same color, and matches the bottom fabric.
Tip #3 - I adjust the tension on my machine so that most of the top thread goes around to the back and the bobbin thread is almost a straight thread running throuh a tunnel of top thread.
Tip #4 - I use something stiff under my background fabric to allow the fabric to slide through the machine without getting guided by the feed dogs. Long ago, I used plain paper, and that still works. There is also a woven material, much like a non-fusible interfacing, that you can use. One piece that is the size of the whole design seems to work the best.
Identify the next lowest piece, and place it on top of the piece just sewn. Sew this piece in place. If this fabric is a different color from the previous one, you may wish to change your top thread.
Continue stacking and sewing until your design is finished.
If you have used paper on the back of your design, now is the time to rip it out.
You're done!
Once I had all of the design pieces sewn on and the paper ripped out, I put a quick binding on. This binding was a store-bought double wide bias binding, that was made for quilts. It is about 1" on each side - so it is really extra wide. I machine stitched the binding on the front, folded it over to the back, and then hand stitched it closed on the back. After all, I did want something about this baby quilt to be hand stitched.
My friend, Roberta, loved her new baby quilt, and her baby, Hilary enjoyed it as well. What's really fun about this quilt is that Roberta had never really thought about making quilts. With this gift and the passage of some time, she, too, decided to take up quilting. Now not only do we share stories of our kids, but we share stories of our quilts!
You just never know where your passion for quilting will take you and / or your friends.
Happy Quilting!
Penny Halgren
www.How-to-Quilt.com
Inspiration and Education for Beginning Quilters
www.Rag-Quilt-Instructions.com
Fast, Fun and Funky Quilts
©2006, Penny Halgren
Penny is a quilter of more than 24 years who seeks to interest new quilters and provide them with the resources they need to create beautiful quilts.
This article courtesy of http://www.How-to-Quilt.com.
You may freely reprint this article on your website or in your newsletter provided this courtesy notice and the author name and URL remain intact.
posted by Penny Halgren | 6:32 AM
1 Comments:
I wonder how difficult it would be to make a baby quilt from scratch like the moon and stars baby bedding set on this page?
Would you have to have a special machine to be able to quilt around the moon and stars?
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