Baby Quilt

I am absolutely horrible at following directions sometimes. I’m an avid reader, but when it comes to reading tutorials my eyes just glaze over. I’ve been meaning to try quilting for a while, but I needed to read a tutorial.

So instead of reading a tutorial, I decided to wing it. I know the basics of quilting. Pretty fabric layer, bating, backing. Great. Our friends are having a baby so I decided to try out my quilting experiment on a project that has been scaled down to baby size (less wasted fabric if it turned disastrous). It ended up working out and I even had some leftover fabric so I made bibs because it seems that people with babies can never have too many bibs.

The first step in this project was to pick out the fabric which is always the worst part because I am the greatest clashing offender. I chose five different fabrics and a fabric for the backing. I wasn't sure how much to buy of each so I went with ½ yard for the front fabrics and 2 yards for the backing. Then I threw it all in the wash with my color catcher.

I cut a 6” wide piece out of each color. I just cut from selvage to selvage. I did use a cutting mat and rotary cutter which made things so easy. If you want to try quilting for the first time I would absolutely recommend using those tools instead of scissors.

Next I sewed the pieces together with a 1/2” seam. I pressed open the seams and trimmed the edges so everything was nice and even.

Then I cut my backing fabric and batting and made them an inch larger than the front of the quilt on all sides. I read somewhere that hand tacking the quilt was the best method of holding everything together, but hand stitching is not for me so you can see that I tried hand tacking with red thread in the picture below. Then I gave up and pinned the heck out of that thing instead (no pictures of that).

(I ended up trimming the batting to fit the top fabric. I’m not sure what I was thinking by making it the same size as the backing).

My sewing machine is pretty basic and I don’t have many decorative stitches so I used the faggoting stitch to sew right along the seams lengthwise. I chose a lilac colored thread for my spool and brown to match the backing for my bobbin. If you have decorative quilting stitches on your machine then I would definitely recommend using those. 

(The stitch is a little plain, but it adds a little more oomph than a straight stitch).

Next, I sewed together the binding. I pressed the binding inward ¼” all around and then pressed the binding so it completely encased the edge of the top fabric.

(Lovely ironing board cover isn't it? That will have to be another project sometime soon)

I swapped my spool of thread for brown and stitched fairly close to the edge of the binding.

The finished product! I was quite happy with my first quilting experience and I am planning on more difficult projects in the future.

As for the bibs, I used this tutorial.

I just used up all the fabric I had leftover instead of that weird fluffy stuff used in the tutorial. I also opted for sew in Velcro instead of snaps.

The expecting parents were quite pleased with their baby gift and I hope that more of my friends get pregnant now.

Happy sewing!