A simple baby quilt or two.

One of the best parts about having a blog (even when you yourself are something of a delinquent blogger) is that every so often, you will be trying to remember how you solved some problem in the past, and you can ASK the INTERNET what you did, and the internet will KNOW, because you TOLD it. This is what happened to me recently while finishing up a quilt, and I was led down a rabbit hole reading about my own past crafting projects. I was reminded of how many of you lovely ladies encouraged me to persevere and/or give up on this truly desperately ridiculous quilt, and I so appreciated the encouragement in both directions that I feel compelled to update you with the results.

After cutting my project up into little bits and sewing it back together again a few times, I ended up with a quilt top that was actually sort of not too terribly un-cute. By that point I was so dreadfully tired of thinking about it that I folded it up, shoved it onto my works-in-progress shelf, and ignored it for six months or so. Then, last fall, when I was in the midst of some life-changingly magical tidying, off to the thrift store it went, in hopes that it sparked joy in some other poor crafting fool. I have no regrets on this point whatsoever.

These are different quilts. Joy-sparking quilts. Sweet little baby quilts for darling little babies.

This first one was for our godson Freddie, though of course since I’m a delinquent, he didn’t get his baby quilt until several months after his little brother was born. Luckily he’s still too young to notice.

I did buy the fabric while I was still under my self-imposed fabric-buying ban, but who could resist those FOXES? I had to do it. With a simple little bow tie block on the front, it made for a happy little quilt for a happy little guy.

I quilted with my now go-to of pearl cotton thread outlining the blocks and the bow ties. (Are they still bow ties in this simplified version? I’m not quite sure that they qualify, but that’s what I’ve been calling them.)

This one was my dear friend’s baby girl, and apparently it takes five babies for Auntie Rosie to get her act together enough to send a quilt, because I don’t think I ever manged to do it for Ciara’s four older brothers and sisters, whom I also love. But clever Ciara happened to be born when I was in the midst of a crafting spree, and she happened to be a girl, which coordinated nicely with my stash.

I had the darling fabric already — my mother had given it to me, actually, and I pulled it out several times for various projects, but never could bring myself to cut it up. I finally realized that I needed to make it into a little wholecloth quilt.

Instead of using bias binding on this one, I just sandwiched it, turned it inside out, and topstitched. The quilting is very simple, as you can see, and a little random, but it just seemed like it suited.

Now that I’ve had a few babies myself, I realize that I end up with lots of photos of them lying on their blankets. When they’re little and immobile, I spread it out and plop them down for tummy time or hanging out (or, what we refer to as “hypnotizing the baby,” aka, lying them down under a ceiling fan). Then, since I suddenly am not holding the baby anymore, I grab a camera and start taking photos. For this reason, I do try to make sure I have a lot of white on at least one side of my quilts, the idea being that it helps reflect lots of light for optimal cuteness capturing.

At this point, I wish I had some optimally cute photos of the quilts in action! Alas.

 

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