Tag Archives: baby quilt

Quilts Inspired by Books • 2 Comments

sarah • February 13, 2023

I'm excited about the announcement for this week's Project QUILTING challenge: A Novel Project. The one big rule is that our projects need to be inspired by a book we've read. Easy peasy! So many options. (I hope you'll consider playing along and making a quilt between now and Sunday!)

In the challenge theme announcement post Trish shared a number of her book inspired projects. It got me thinking about which quilts I have made inspired by books. Here's a wrap-up of those projects.

***click on the photos to read more about each project***

The first thing that came to mind is Very Hungry Caterpillar. I adore the children's book and when the Very Hungry Caterpillar fabric came out I admired it but had no reason to buy it... until I found out it was pregnant with my first. I think Very Hungry Caterpillar fabric was the first baby-related item I purchased once I knew I was expecting.

My son's crib quilt was the first project I made with those fabrics (back in 2010). It was probably the first thing I pieced improvisationally, starting with the panels and building around them until it was the size of a crib mattress (odd dimensions, I know now).

I had purchased *a lot* of the Very Hungry Caterpillar fabric, which resulted in at least three more quilts, the last of which was a twin-sized bed quilt for my son which took me way too long to finish. Oh, and the pillow case on there, too!

In 2016, when my sister was expecting her first, the baby;'s room had a Wizard of Oz theme which inspired me to make a Wizard of Oz baby quilt. I absolutely adore this quilt. It was designed as I went. The Emerald City is appliqué and the yellow brick road is reverse appliqué.

In 2021, I used a Willy Wonka inspired fabric pull for a Project QUILTING challenge.

One of the very first quilts I made was from a book was from Quilts from The Quiltmaker's Gift with patterns out of the delightful children's book The Quiltmaker's Gift.

The last reference I could find to books on my blog was not a project, but a fabric pull. Fiction and Fabric was a fun activity using a book as inspiration for pulling together a small palette of fabric.

Now to decide what I will make this week!

Improv Abstraction

sarah • September 20, 2021

Four years ago this week, I took an improv piecing workshop with Karen Foster of Capitola Quilter. She taught Improv Abstraction, using two methods of improv curves, for the workshop with Bay Area Modern. In my #99DaysofWIPs this summer I focused on projects that had been started in quilt workshops such as this one.

I used the remaining solids in these two colors, Kona Pewter and Nautical, to fill in and add to the blocks I'd created in the workshop.

I added smooth curve walking foot quilting, inspired by my recent walking foot class with Jacquie Gering. I started with a smooth curve across the quilt and then echoed that curve with more walking foot quilting. On the other side of the initial curve I created two sections and similarly echoed the gentle curves to fill the space.

I'm making an effort to us fabric from my stash, so I chose a yard of grey Moda Grunge fabric from my stash for the backing and a grey and white print for my binding. I machine bound the quilt. This baby quilt finishes at approximately 29" x 29".

Me daughter assisted me for a quick photo shoot at the park. I chose the orientation of the first three blocks I pieced (in the lower right center), because they reminded me of an AT-AT from Star Wars.

Have you tried smooth curves with a walking foot?

Thanks for visiting!

Purple Scrappy Slab Cuddle Quilt For My Niece • 18 Comments

sarah • December 5, 2020

There's a sentiment about how a first child's experience is different than a second child's. (We could talk about how my 8 year old doesn't have a baby book yet.) Apparently the same goes for niece and nephew. Within a couple months of my nephew's birth, he had a baby quilt. However, my niece just received her "baby" quilt for her 2nd birthday.

I started out with a different plan for her. My nephew's quilt had been inspired by the mural in his room and I wanted to do the same for her. But her African safari wall left me feeling like I "should" do appliqué... and I don't particularly enjoy the process of appliqué. Eventually I pivoted to focusing on the main color of her room, purple, a favorite of mine. I have a lot of purple scraps and I have been building purple scrappy slabs to piece for Jillian's quilt for over two years!

In recent weeks (months?) the quilt top has been my backdrop while I'm on zoom. I love reminiscing about the previous purple projects these scraps have come from. (There's a section in the upper right that's from my Ultra Violet All About Angles quilt.)

I'm really deadline driven. As Gretchen Rubin says, "things that can be done any time are often done at no time." And that really resonates with me for quilts that don't have a deadline. A challenge or quilt show submission deadline is really motivating for me. Quilt alongs and 100 day projects help, too. But "I'm making this for someone" doesn't usually have a deadline. As we approached her 2nd birthday, I decided this needed to be my hard deadline. I could hardly still call this a "baby" quilt, but at least it is sizable enough to be a good cuddle quilt for years to come.

I opted for simple walking foot quilting in organic vertical and horizontal lines. I didn't concern myself with perfection or equal spacing.

Then I added a little free motion elephant as a nod to her room. (Shh. I also have an elephant quilt in progress for her.)

My binding is more scrappy fabric. I usually opt for a bias binding, but this one was straight grain pieces, since I wanted to use scraps. I attached the binding by machine.