Baby Quilt

I made this quilt when I was pregnant with my fourth child, who turned out to be a boy. That's okay, I thought. I'll just save it for the next one. Well, I got three boys in a row after that one. So here it sits at my house, apparently never to be used. I love it. It's too little for my big girls (who are now 13 and 8), so I guess it will have to be for my first granddaughter -- if it hasn't turned to dust by then. Then center is just a panel. The border is pieced. I hand-quilted it. I think it's about 36" X 45".

We call it "Baby Regan's Quilt," because that was going to be the name of our next girl if we ever got one.

Here is a close-up of the fabric and stitching detail.

You can see the stitching better on the back. The green is actually a little pinstripe, but you can't see that detail very well. Apparently I need to take a photography class just so I can blog. I drew the curlicues on the front in pencil and then hand-stitched them -- finishing with a French knot in the center of the curls.

My three quilts

These are the three quilts that hang over my various couches that my children use to snuggle under while watching TV. They don't remotely match each other, nor do they match any of my furniture. It doesn't really matter, though. They still keep us warm, and they're soft -- which my children vow is the most important thing. The first is a Wrapping Paper quilt from the Chez Moi fabric and some Moda chenille. I machine quilted it with various stitches on my regular, old, non-quilting machine.

Next is my Raggy Roses quilt. I used the leftover scraps of my Paris Flea Market (3 Sisters for Moda) fabric to make the roses, just put on regular, unbleached muslin. I machine appliqued the layers, leaving the unfinished edges so that I could get the raggy look. I washed and dried this quilt twice. It will get more raggedy as I wash it more often.

This last one is a quilt that was designed by Peggy Waltman (Hopskotch Designs). Truthfully, I just saw it in an ad in a quilt magazine and figured out the design myself, so it may not be exact. The flowers ended up to be more star-shaped than flower-shaped, and I think the green appliqued edge was supposed to be more rounded than triangular to match the flowers. I'm not great at applique. I'm still learning, so I didn't do so hot on getting it perfect. I do love the colors, though. I had gone through a green/red/yellow phase for a while there. I pieced this a long time ago, but it took me till just a few months ago to finish quilting it. The right-hand side shows the back -- a black and white floral. I didn't have quite enough of that piece (it was given to me by a friend), so I put a strip of red along the two opposite sides to make it fit the front. I'm afraid I do that alot, because when I buy fabric, I don't always have a plan for it.

Peggy Waltman says that the quilting design is as important as the design of the overall quilt and to not be afraid to make your quilting fun too. So for this one I did A LOT of quilting -- A LOT. I echo-quilted the flowers. However, I changed thread colors for each layer of the applique to match the color of the fabric. Hence, the back is sort of a kaleidoscope of color. On the white/black flower border, I echo-quilted the green zig-zag edging.