Baby Quilts...Part One!

Hey Everyone!  It’s been awhile since my last post. My husband and I have taken a few small trips this spring and we all know the backlog that creates when returning back to real life. But for the first time in years I don’t have to count a baby quilt as one of those pending items!

Over the last ten years I can’t remember a time when there wasn’t at least one baby quilt in progress, often times more. Unfortunately, I don’t have pictures of some of the earlier ones but I’m getting better at documenting my quilts.

The first of many baby quilts that I made was in 2009 for my sister-in-law’s first child.  This is one of the few baby quilts that was actually a “baby” size.  I used the Hanky Panky pattern by Darlene Zimmerman and Rachel Shelburne and my mother-in-law picked out the fabric.  Both my SIL and her husband met at Texas A&M so the corner stones of this quilt has the Aggie logo. 

For her second son she helped design the pattern and also asked for a larger quilt that he could continue to use as he got older.  This was the start of making lap-size and larger baby quilts and I’ve made the larger quilts for almost everyone since. This was the first quilt that I ever appliqued and I naively chose the argyle print for the lettering.  I love the pattern and fabric but the appliqued block was definitely a learning process for me.

In 2013 I made a quilt for my best friend using the Lucky Square pattern by Sew Crafty Jess.  She and her husband are big travelers and were engaged at Versailles, I used a map of Paris on the back and color patterns to match the baby room on the front.  It’s a fun and colorful quilt.

The quilt for my sister-in-law’s third son was really enjoyable to make. The pattern was quick and easy and I used a lot of bright colors, some were from my stash and others were random fat quarters that I picked up at my local quilt shop.  The quilt pattern is Off Track by Cluck Cluck Sew and measures at 58” x 63”.  I also used a fun backing material on this one, it is a Viking’s travel map from Timeless Treasure. 

In 2016 I finally had the opportunity to make a baby girl quilt and had a lot of fun picking out the fabric.  My SIL found this adorable deer fabric from Hawthorne Threads and chose the Hopscotch pattern from Thimble Blossoms.  This quilt turned out to be one of my favorite quilts I’ve made; the pattern is stunning and the fabric line is gorgeous.  This was also the second quilt that I’ve ever taken to a long-arm quilter and have never looked back.  The basting and quilting process has always been a chore for me and I love that I can just drop a quilt off and have beautiful patterns quilted.  For this quilt I chose a quilt pattern that had ladybugs, dragonflies, and flowers. 

2017 was a really busy year with four baby quilts made, I’ll save those for Part Two!!