DIY Baby Quilt

A quilt for Willow

My great niece Victoria is having a baby girl this month and I wanted to make a special quilt to welcome Willow into the world.  I thought Victoria might like a woodlands theme and my first choice was this series from Riley Blake called Enchant.  I love it.

But then I stumbled across Victoria’s Pinterest page full of baby ideas and figured out that she is more into purple than pink so instead of the adorable little elfish girls, foxes, bunnies and birds, I went with the Michael Miller Retro Forest Life in Orchid.  Also cute as a button.  In the pic below, the two fabrics on the left are from Fabric.com.  I had carefully matched the pieces on the website’s “design wall”, but when I received them I realized not one of the shades of purple were the same on the two fabrics.  The only color that they shared was an odd shade of green.  I’m not a big fan of green but I did like the dot fabric from our little quilt shop, Tomorrow’s Treasures, and thought it would pull the other fabrics together.

I wanted to make a patchwork quilt but the pieces had to be large enough to showcase the woodland scene and all its little creatures.  Back to Pinterest again where I discovered these clever baby quilts:

The only one that had a working link was the “Easy Baby Quilt” on the right.  The measurements for the quilt were 43 1/2″ by 43 1/2″ but I changed it up to measure 40″ x 46″. Here’s my version: 

I’m not going into details on how to make a quilt but I will share some quilting blogs that I found helpful. I’ve made a few small quilts plus several quilted pillow cases but this was the largest project so far.  I’ve always had trouble basting all the layers together–backing, batting, and quilt top. Inevitably something moves and then I’ve got to start ripping things out.  Having a “walking foot” on my sewing machine helps tremendously but the material still slips. I found the blog, Anyone Can Quilt that recommended using a spray baste.  She suggested 505 Spray and Fix which I couldn’t find locally so I ordered it from Amazon.  Using this spray adhesive made all the difference–no movement at all. Just wait until it’s dry before you start sewing!   And the adhesive will wash right out after you are all done with the quilting.

I also used Diary of a Quilter Beginning Quilting Series Tutorial.  The “Adding Borders 101” and “Machine Quilt Binding 101” were very easy to follow and made both of these subjects simple.  And the last blog I used was Chasing Cottons Quilt Designs where I learned that you must label your quilts and she gave several examples.  Here’s mine:

This was actually very painful for me because my handwriting sucks and fabric pens are a bit different from a regular pen. Many many attempts were made at this simple little muslin label! Here’s one more look at the quilt, just so you can see how the white frames all the pretty fabric.

It was fun making this quilt and I learned a few new tricks to make it easier.  I’ve been piecing together a queen-sized quilt for Piper and have been procrastinating on the basting step but I think I’m ready now!

Willow will be here very soon and I’m looking forward to meeting her!