Baby quilts are by far my favorite quilt to make for so many reasons.
1. They are smaller, and therefore faster to put together, than their larger counterparts.
2. They aren't one specific size. Mattress sizes are all standard dimensions and there are specifics about how far down the quilt should drop off a mattress, how much extra to add for a pillow, etc. etc. Baby quilts are made more for snuggling and squishing around a baby so they can be any size. I've made tiny ones around 30" x 36" and much larger ones at 4' x 5'. Lap quilts are equally wonderful to make for the same reason.
3. They are always well received. Even if the quilt looks horrendous. Even if it doesn't go with the nursery decor. Even if the baby has 500 receiving blankets, 100 stroller blankets, and 4 more handmade quilts. People love the idea that they soon get to wrap up and snuggle their baby.
4. They're just fun to make. It's a great way to try out a new technique before you commit do making a large bed-size quilt with it.
Several years ago, when all of my friends started to have babies, I made a proclamation (to myself) that I would only make baby quilts for relatives because, despite all the reasons listed above, they are time consuming to make. For some reason, this year of all years, I felt that I had a lot of time on my hands (I'm not sure where that delusion came from) and I made quilts for babies of friend's and family members.
Technically the quilt above wasn't finished until the past week, but since most of it was constructed in 2015--with just a teeny bit of handquilting left to wrap up in 2016-- I'm considering it a 2015 quilt! The free pattern, Icky Thump, is from Six Two Seven Handworks. She has tons of beautiful paper piecing patterns. If you don't know how to paper piece but want to learn how, stay tuned to our Spring Classes-- I've got something in the works for you!
The quilt is for my nephew, though when I started it I didn't know if I was getting a nephew or a niece so I went for a modern gender neutral. I used up my entire stash of text prints for this quilt which was both soul crushing and maddeningly exciting. (Hi, Fabric Nerd here).
Earlier in the summer our neighbors had their first baby. I'm personally a big fan of not finding out the baby sex until birth, but I was psyched when they found out they were having a little girl and decided the nursery would be yellow, grey and elephant themed. I had the perfect peach elephant fabric and this quilt (pattern from See Kate Sew) came together quickly. It didn't hurt that they have the most beautiful copper mailbox for delivery!
Last but not least, this HST (half square triangle) baby quilt for a friend's baby boy. I love HSTs! They are deceptively easy and the combinations are endless. This time I just grabbed all of my blues and greens and put them together without much of a plan. I finished it up with a freemotion quilting.
If you'd like to see just how easy it is to start quilting, join us for our Quilting 101 class on February 10th and 17th! We'll cover HST and piecing basics while making your own quilted pillow cover (what's cozier for winter than a quilted pillow? Not much.) Register Here!