A Baby Quilt for the New GranddaughterStitches

I mentioned in a post last August that there is going to be a new GrandBabyStitches.  Now we know that it is a GranddaughterStitches!  So, in addition to the receiving blankets and some other baby accessories, I've been working on a quilt, too.

Daughter-in-lawStitches told me about a website/app called The Bump.  It's a very helpful app if you happen to be expecting a baby.  Each week they send out an email that tells you how big your baby is, how much it weighs, etc.  It tells you other information about the baby, too, like which parts of the baby are growing right now, etc.  And there are lots of links to articles about things like decorating a nursery, buying a baby stroller, what to do for morning sickness, etc.

The really cute thing is that each week when they tell you the size of the baby, they compare it to a fruit or vegetable.  At first it was a tiny apple seed, then grew to a grape, then a lemon.  And later to a head of lettuce, a pumpkin, and a watermelon!  So I went on a hunt to find as many of those foods depicted in fabric as I could.  Here they are all laid out.

I changed the photo into black and white so I could get a better idea of which fabrics read as darks and which read as lights.

I found a pattern in a magazine that I liked.  Then I adapted it to make a smaller quilt.  The magazine included a paper template for the curved piece.  So I just made it a little smaller than that, using the width measurement of the template to tell me how wide my baby quilt would be.

Here is where I was auditioning fabrics for the binding.  I ended up going with a semi-solid, known as "Grunge" in green.  

How to quilt this was my next "decision/opportunity."  I haven't been feeling very good about my free-motion quilting quality lately, but. . .

I sewed 1/4" away from all the curved horizontal seams and the straight vertical seams.  Then I tried free motion quilting some fruit and vegetable shapes, and was ok with the results.

I decided to mix up the quilting, so you can see in the above photo that I quilted strawberries on the pumpkins.    And below I quilted pumpkins on the bananas.

I had found this great "multi-fruit/veg" print at a quilt shop in Ashland, Oregon which I used for the back of the quilt.

I'm quite happy with how it turned out.  This is one quilt that is supposed to look wavy on the bottom!

Way last February, at our annual PPQG retreat, all of the participants made disappearing four-patch blocks in reds, whites, and blues.

I have to say that I am truly amazed at how beautiful and scrappy it all looks.  Some people used colors other than the traditional red, white, and blue.  We have some light blue, some off white, and somehow it all blends beautifully.

Since then, I've been playing with different arrangements on my design wall.  

This is one of those projects that (sadly) I kept putting off.  It seemed like a huge mountain to me.

First, all of the blocks needed to be squared up to a consistent size.  Fortunately, my friend and fellow quilter Deb squared them up for me.  

Still, huge mountain!

But I finally got to it this week.  I finalized my arrangement, then got busy sewing all the squares together.  

Many years ago Libby Lehman taught a class at my guild and she showed us a method of sewing lots of squares into a quilt.    In the photo below you can just barely see gaps between the horizontal quilt rows.  That is because I sewed all the lengthwise seams first, but didn't cut the threads between the squares.  So at this point all I needed to do was to sew the crosswise seams together, and they are all held in just the right position.  This way nothing gets lost, and my quilt comes out the way I had planned it on the design wall.

Now all the horizontal rows need to be sewn together and again back up on my design wall.  I think I'll see if I can get some help adding a border and doing the basting and quilting.

Pet Beds

I sewed up some more pet beds recently, since my bag of throw-away scraps was overflowing!  This time I used some upholstery fabrics that I had in my stash.  These are pieces that an interior designer gave to me--fabrics that were discontinued.

I like this one with the straw hats. . .

This one would be perfect for a hunting lodge!

Here is where I laid a yardstick down so you can see the relative sizes of the pet beds.  

I might try to see if my own kitties would like any of these.  But I know that I will give some of them to my local animal shelter.