It seems like all of my friends are currently having babies. Which means I’m making baby quilts. I love making baby quilts, because it gives me a chance to play with new patterns on a small scale and a chance to practice my free motion quilting on my home machine.
Working on a small scale
Sometimes a new quilt pattern can be daunting when done for a large bed-sized quilt. But when you look at the blocks needed for a baby sized quilt, it tends to be easier to digest. Irish Chain quilts are something I always wanted to do, but the size of them was too overwhelming for me. I decided to start small and did an Irish Chain for my first baby quilt. I really love the look of Irish Chains, and have plans for many more in my future, but I have yet to make another one. The blocks are easy to create, but for me, the time to make a scrappy Irish Chain look good is a large investment. Color coordination is not my forte.
On the flip side, I did a Pheobe’s Flower Box quilt using a jelly roll I had no clue what to do with. When the quilt was finished, I realized that it would translate really well into baby quilts. I had a jelly roll of Toy Chest by Penny Rose Studio sitting around and decided to experiment. It worked out really well, and the best part was I managed to get four quilts out of one jelly roll. I probably could have gotten five or six if I hadn’t been concerned about trying to do gender specific quilts.
Baby-sized specific patterns
One of my first forays into using precuts was the Fat Quarter Shop’s Jelly Roll Jam quilt pattern. I love how quick and easy this pattern is, I can easily bust out two quilt tops in a day. Also, one jelly roll turns into two quilt tops. There was a year and a half where this was the only type of baby quilt I made. I strongly suggest this pattern to anyone, especially if you are new to quilting.
Lately, I have noticed a bunch of panels turned into kits created to be standalone baby quilts. While I haven’t tried any yet, I have several on the todo list including this adorable Winnie The Pooh Quilt Kit. Depending on how my quilting is, I may end up just buying more of this kit in bulk. Seriously, who doesn’t love Winnie the Pooh! Though what is up with the lack of Eeyore fabric? He is my favorite Winnie the Pooh character. The great thing about panels is that it gives you a wonderful canvas to practice your quilting techniques.
For me, the hardest part of baby quilts is finishing them all in time. I’m always behind and the new baby ends up being a few months old before they get a quilt. This is something I’m working on, since I’m horribly late on most of my quilts.
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