Rowan Cade's Baby Quilt

Here is a baby boy's quilt that I have worked on for quite a while, a little here and there.  Then I found out another baby boy was coming in our family, so I finally finished it just in time for the baby shower!  

    I had a lot of the blue and green strips left over, so another identical quilt is in progress.  😁 I think a baby girl's version in pinks and other pastel colors would be pretty.

Two Simple Baby Quilts

 I have not been quilting very much so far this year!  I just haven't been able to get in the mood to work on them.

But, I finally finished two simple baby quilts for two sisters who were having babies.  One was for a boy born in March and the other is for a girl who is due in September.

Both quilts consist of a top that is one piece of fabric.  Both are Winnie the Pooh themed!

Here is the boy quilt made for Max:

The girl's quilt made for Aliza:

This one consists of pre-cuts from Walmart.  The Winnie the Pooh fabric comes in a one yard pre-cut and the backing is made from 4 coordinating fat quarters.  The fat quarters picked up the red, gray and yellow colors in the top.  With some careful cutting and sewing I was able to make the binding from one fat quarter.  It was so close to not being enough though!

Confession:  I had a small area of pleating on the back of this one.   I noticed it, but really don't think a non-quilter would.  But, I was able to strategically place the quilt label over that area!

I feel that when Fall and Winter weather arrive, I will be back to my normal quilting self. 

Jungle Babies 4 For Isaiah

I made a simple baby quilt over the long Thanksgiving weekend.  This one was made for a brand new great nephew born the week before.  He's the only Isaiah I've ever known, except for Mr. Edwards    from "Little House on the Prairie".  I love the name, especially because its Biblical.  In fact, I had to look in my Bible to make sure I was spelling it right!

This is the FOURTH quilt I have made using the Jungle Babies fabric!  The first one I made was for my oldest grandson over 11 years ago!  I picked up pieces of the fabric when I would see it in a store over the years.  I may be able to make one more scrappy one from the leftovers! The date on the selvedge is 2006.

You can see the other 3 quilts I made from this fabric HERE, HERE and HERE.

Here are some pictures.   It was a rainy day, so I only have indoor pictures!

In the process of being quilted.

While making this quilt, I decided to keep up with my time.  I thought it would be interesting to see how long it took me to do each step in the quilt.  For most of the steps I wrote down my starting and stopping time, but a couple of them I had already completed and so I estimated those.  Keep in mind that this was a very simple baby sized quilt and so a larger, more complicated quilt would take much more time!

 Here are the results.

Cutting pieces for the top and sewing together (center panel and
three borders of different sizes, pressing as I sewed                                    2 hours

Cutting backing fabric and batting; Pressing top and backing in
preparation for pin basting -                                                                           1 hour

Pin Basting -                                                                                                     1 hour

Machine Quilting (41 X 41 quilt)   (meandering)                                         1 hour and 35 minutes

Trimming edges and squaring up corners                                                      15 minutes

Cutting fabric for binding, sewing strips together,
machine sewing the binding on the quilt, and hand sewing the
binding on the back of the quilt-                                                                     2 hours and 40 minutes

Making label-                                                                                                  1 hour and 10 minutes

Total -                                                                                                              9 hours and 40 minutes

Very interesting!  Now I can figure out how long it would take me to make a simple baby quilt, while fitting the work into small blocks of time before and after work and on the weekends or other days off work.

If I could do one hour a day, I should be able to finish a simple baby quilt in 9 to 10 days.  We will see if I can make that work!

"Little John Deere Girl" Quilt Finished!

I've been hand quilting this sweet little quilt for Baby Victoria before and after work for a couple of weeks. It was a perfect day weather-wise to finish the binding. A rainy day outside and quilting on the inside! Heaven...

Rainy weather outside is not so good for taking pictures of a quilt.  But, I gave it my best try.

You know, there is just something about a hand quilted quilt.  This one is soooo soft and cuddly.  It  feels entirely different than a machine quilted quilt.  This make me want to do more hand quilting. 

I would love for Victoria to love this quilt and drag it around and NEED it to go to sleep.  That would make my heart sing!

The measurements are 36 by 40.

Here's a sneak peak at the next quilt I am making for Victoria.  My plan for this one is to tie it with yarn.   A tied quilt is also soft and cuddly, more like a comforter.

A rainy day at home helped me to complete the top!  The measurements are 36 by 48.  That's a pretty big quilt for a newborn, but she'll grow into it.  I used baby quilts with my own babies for lots of things.  They make the perfect "pallet" for them to lay on the floor, etc.

I also continued to work on the Rainbow Scrappy Double Irish Chain Quilt as a "leaders and enders" project while sewing the baby quilt blocks.  I made quite a bit of progress on the purple blocks.

I hope you have enjoyed your rainy Saturday!