Wish Upon a Quilt Blog

My brother and sister-in-law just had a new baby this month. I don’t know why I’ve waited this long to work on a baby quilt. I had nine months but they just flew by.  My niece had to be born to throw me into high gear making a baby quilt. I love making quick and easy baby quilts. This project only took me a weekend but it came out adorable. I used a Tina Givens Fairy Tip Toes panel and a minky like fleece for the back. I try to use minky on baby quilts as a ploy to make it the baby’s favorite. Many young children are attracted to the tactile softness of the fabric.

I often use the pillowcase turning method of sandwiching my baby quilts since they are small and I don’t usually feel like messing with binding on such time pressured projects. (They have to be done before the baby is no longer a baby! ) In this case I pinned my panel to the fleece and stitched a 1/4 inch seam around and left a 10 inch opening for turning on the bottom side. I then used my pinking blade on my rotary cutter and eye balled a 1/2 inch seam on the minky. The fuzzy plushness of the fabric makes it difficult to tell if you have gotten it in a 1/4 inch seam so I cut it a little larger to make it easier to stitch the seam closed later.

 I also added 3 inch strips of various ribbons to the sides of the quilt. I folded them in half and pinned them in place before stitching those seams. I thought it would give the final quilt a boutique look and add another tactile stimulus to the quilt. I then turned the quilt inside out and stitched a 1/4 inch around the edge of the quilt; making sure I sealed the 10 inch opening in the bottom.  I pin basted and quilted it.(Click on the pictures in the gallery below for more detailed instructions on the project and descriptions.)

 Baby quilts are a great way to practice machine quilting on your home machine. Their size is manageable and they are meant to be serviceable – so mistakes and irregularities in stitches can be over looked. You don’t have to present your best work for a quilt that is meant to be dragged in the mud and cuddled till it’s thread bare.

I’ve found that the fleece and minky scraps from this project make great burpee clothes for the baby too.  They look boutiquee, feel lovely, and coordinate with the quilt!  Mom (or Dad) and baby can step out in style with quilt and a handful of coordinating upscale burp clothes! (Warning, I have a hard time putting these burp clothes down because the minky is so soft and they are guaranteed to get passed around the baby shower because others find it irresistible too. )

Wish has just gotten some cute minky quilt kits in. They each have three different minky soft fabrics. They have a suggestion on how to assemble the materials into a quilt. But you could make several burp clothes out of them or even make a blanket with coordinating burp clothes if you add some adorable quilting cottons into the mix. The OH Boy fabric line by David Walker would pair nicely with the kits for a boy and Lilly Pond by Wendy Slotbloom for a girl. Wish has so many cute fabrics for kids! Be sure to check them out and tell us what you think the cutest baby fabric is.

You can get more great gift ideas from Alex Anderson’s Baby Quilts with Love book and Warm Welcome by Mary Hickey.

Precuts are getting more and more attention as those pretty Jelly Rolls, Layer Cakes, Charm Packs, Sweet Boxes and Honeybuns catch our eyes. Wish recently received new orders of Bali Pops, Neptune, and Fresh pre-cuts. Most quilters recognize the convenience of the pre-cuts but some wonder what to do with them. So we are all searching for the great patterns that are labeled for those beautiful Jelly Rolls, Charm Packs, and Layer Cakes. Moda has  several “cheat sheets” that can show you some common ways to cut Layer Cakes and Charm Packs. They also are very good about offering free quilt patterns for their various fabric lines. Don’t feel like you have to be limited to that fabric line. There is nothing to say that you can’t use a different line.

Moda’s Basic Measurements sheet gives estimates on the size of quilt based on the number of Layer Cakes, Jelly Rolls, or Charm packs.

Loose Change by Claudia Plett and Lee Ann Weaver has some great patterns that are adapted to Charm Packs (referred to as nickels in the book), Layer Cakes (referred to as dimes), and Fat Quarters. Some can be completed with Jelly Rolls too. It’s a fun book. More Nickel Quilts by Pat Speth has twenty patterns for quilts made with Charm Packs.

Today, I’ve been playing with the Neptune and Fresh fabric lines in EQ6. Moda is very good about providing down loadable image files that can be imported into EQ5 and EQ6. You can find their latest swatch samples here. I like to play with new fabric lines in EQ because it helps me get a better feel for the different values and texures in the line.

I tried to pick blocks that would be pre-cut freindly. Here’s a selection of some patterns I explored.

Moda has also provided a braided easter basket project sheet. The sample is done in Swank and stitched by hand. I’m thinking you could acheive a similiar look by machine using the Bali Bowl pattern. This would be a great project for the sweet Honeybuns Cathy has in the shop now. Check out Moda’s Bakeshop for more cool projects with pre-cuts.

 So do you EQ? and what are your favorite precut friendly patterns/projects?

Piecing the Piece O

I love books. I find the collection in Wish Upon A Quilt difficult to stay away from. I like leafing through to see what the projects look like, what techniques are being demonstated, etc.  Recently, I was leafing through Piecing the Piece O’ Cake Way by Becky Goldsmith and Linda Jenkins. This book would be great for a beginner quilter or someone wanting to go back and refresh themselves on the basics. The quilts pictured are cheery and colorful. Every page  of the 127 page book is packed with pictures demonstrating techniques and projects. I was impressed with the discussion on color and contrast at the beginning of the book. 

Some projects listed are Log Cabin, Pinwheels, Drunkard’s Path, and Diamond Stars. There are 15 skill-building projects and 27 quilts. There are mulitple pictures of each quilt to show the difference fabric choice makes in each quilt. I really liked the beginning sections that detailed color and value, fabric choices, preparing fabrics, rotary cutting, and making templates. There are a lot of helpful tip sections through out the book too.  I especially like that the authors discuss practical issues like when your blocks turn out the wrong size.  A beginner quilter could confidently step through the quiltmaking process successfully with this book in hand. The authors step the reader through fabric choice, machine setup, cutting for patterns, assembly, layering the quilt, quilting, and adding the binding. What are some of your favorite books?