Sewing has still been a bit elusive for me this year, but I had to drag out my machine to do some clothing repairs for a friend with mobility issues, and took the opportunity while the machine was out to finish up this quilt that was started a while ago. Kailee B. and Thiv T. welcomed their first-born to the world a couple of years ago, and I made them a baby quilt to echo some of the beautiful bright orange colors in their wedding. Well they have recently welcomed baby #2 into the world (hello Kiran!), and I wanted to make sure he had his snuggling needs fully met. To that end, I wanted something that was complimentary to his sister's quilt, but also different. For this, I used a partially-finished quilt top a friend had started but didn't complete, and pulled it together with a backing of well-loved tie-dyed soft gooshiness (a sheet that I have loved for literal decades but the fitted sheet in the set had met it's makers, so it was time for an upcycle of the topsheet). I used a poly quilt batting in between for extra bounce, quilted it simply along the cross stitch lines, and bound the while thing is a slightly contrasting binding that I personally think does a nice job of framing, while giving a small nod to the funky colors on the back. I think this could genuinely be a reversible quilt--- I love both sides. It's a simple quilt, but I think a perfect size for a petit bebe, and I love the color matching with his sister, but also the differences and gentler vibe--- knowing how active his dear sister is, I imagine he will bring a bit more of the chill... or not! We shall see! Etiher way, i hope he and the whole family enjoy this little bundle of comfy!
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My dear cousins Heidi C. and Nathan H. are about to have their first baby (aka swirly), and since I was seeing them over the holidays, I was able to complete their baby quilt to gift to them in person. I felt like I wanted to do one with lots of faces on it (which I learned later was a favourite feature of Nathan's own baby quilt), but I broke things up with slashes of bright rosy fabric just to mix things up a bit. I also framed everything in that fabric, and then made a narrow border using some of the fabric from cousin Alexis and Andrew's daughter Claire's quilt a few years ago, for a little cousin resonance. I made some bright red binding to go around the outside, and backed it in a soft, quilted green fabric. This backing was a little stretchy, so unfortunately it didn't quilt very smoothly and there are some puckers in the back... but hey! I guess that means it is homemade! :) I hope swirly gets many years of cuddles and comfort from this quilt!
I whipped up this bright baby quilt for my friend Christine H. as she gets ready to welcome her first baby into the world in a couple of months. I actually got it done in time for the baby shower! Gasp!
I wanted to play with stripes and color, so I did up some strip sets with some bright, red-ish baby-themed fabrics in my stash, trimmed them up into blocks and then rimmed them all with some of the green apple fabric in my stash. I think it is sweet! Then I added a rim of my fave tie dyed batik that pulled in many of the colors from the striped blocks before adding a final edge of lime fabric-- because why not? I made some binding out of a juicy red fabric from my stash and finished it up! I really like this for a baby-- it is not a huge quilt, but is super colorful, great for tucking in for a snuggle, and can also serve as a bright, colorful play mat or blanket for setting up outside for some play time. I hope she enjoys it, and it gets lots of use! I sewed up this quilt for Shivani C. and her new little baby Aavu! I really like it! Much more 'pink' and monotoned than I usually do, but I knew Shivani would be into it.
I made this using almost all of the rest of the Glebe Patches I had left in my stash. They are just so lovely, and I thought it was time to give them a new home. I chose one of my favourite pink clamshell patterned fabrics to use as the framing fabric, and made some binding out of a variegated purple fabric from my stash. On the back, I used a delightful Winne the Pooh flannel piece I had found, and it fit perfectly and will be extra snuggly. I am quite pleased with how this turned out, and hope it gets many years of use! Not my best blog post title, but it made me smile....
This is a baby quilt I did up for my friend Emily B. and her second child, Franklin. (You can see the one for Henrik here if interested) Before she was even pregnant, she dropped off the blue and brown background fabric for me to use at my leisure-- not for her, but just for me to use as I chose. She said she loved it but with a new baby she just wasn't going to be making anything anytime soon. So I held on to it, waiting for the right moment--- until the day I found out she was pregnant with her second child! I dug it out and then promptly procrastinated for many months until I was finally able to find the time to pull this together. I tried to use fabrics that matched the background fabric (ie: the fabric Emily gave me), and feel like it came out pretty well. I used some of my African fabrics from the stash (some of which were also used in this quilt for Zawadi), making some colorful panels to catch baby's eye, and centered it all around one of the batik elephants in my stash. I also rimmed it in some pine cone fabric--- the family likes to be at cottages and in nature, and I thought the colors worked well-- and then made some binding with the background fabric and sandwiched it up! I hope little Franklin enjoys many snuggles with this quilt! The quilt arrived 6 weeks after Franklin did, but I am sure he will be enjoying it as the autumn season starts to unfold. Enjoy! I put together this colorful blast of puffiness for Kailee B. and Thiv T. as a baby quilt/ playmat for their soon-to-arrive bebe! (Did I mention I am EXCITED?!) For this quilt, I went for bright, juicy colors, but incorporated a gradient towards more pastels and cooler colors towards one end, just to have the option of a bit more peace if needed. :) I raided my stash and cut strips of some favourite fabrics (including a few that I used in Kailee and Thiv's wedding lap quilt), and also did up a few more scrappy strips for a bit of variety. Despite common practice, I decided to forego a border and just go with the end-to-end stripe look, which I have never done but really like. I sandwiched the top with two layers of poofy poly batten, and used some bright green contrasting polkadots for the back. Quilted very simply with horizontal and vertical lines in a square grid pattern, and then made some bright red binding to bring everything together. I really love how it came out, and hope it provides lots of warmth and colorful comfort to the whole family!
Made this lovely little upcycled baby quilt for my dear friend Karen B. in the Netherlands, as she and her partner are set to welcome their first child into the world. I started with a simple square-block design, and then pierced the order with some colorful strips of chaos, fitting for the life-altering-ness of a baby. I like the stripey border, which I made a little wider on the top and bottom to help make it a bit more of a rectangle. I quilted it simply with horizontal lines along the border between the colorful stripes, and then quilted down either side of the strips. Did a pieced backing with a panel of that beautiful egret upcycled curtain fabric I was given. And bound it all in the border fabric, which has a little bit of an offset confetti feel. I love it! Hope baby Brummel spends many a cozy nap on this quilt from Auntie Amy in Canada!
My friend Emily B. is having a baby, and miracle of miracles, I got her baby quilt done before the bambino arrived! You will recognize this color scheme... It is similar to this post --- basically, I made them during the same couple of months, and was loving the modern, modest color vibe and decided to keep playing.
This one was actually the first inspiration, and I took my cues for the colors from the cute animal print fabric in the inner border. It is an upcycled scrap of fabric so I didn't have enough to play extensively, so I played off the colors instead and created a modern-ish vibe with diamond patterns and diamond quilting as well. (Since Emily and Matt are super cool and hip... I hope I matched their aesthetic somewhat) Outer border is soft grey flannel, binding is made of scraps from the colorful fabric bits in the quilt, and the back is a soft purple grey cotton (that used to be a curtain). I had some strips left and made her a little bonus baby-friendly coordinating bag to throw stuff in as well in case it is useful. I hope Emily, Matt and future kiddo enjoy this quilt for many years to come! I made this little ditty for Bekkah C., one of my dear childhood friends, and her new baby son Nicolas. It's coming a little late, but as they say, better late than never... sigh. :)
So in non-typical style, I tried to keep the color palatte a bit tighter, and I like how things came out. I designed this myself, so the smaller heart fits a little wonkily into the bigger white heat, but in the end it all works out. It took me a while to figure it out, and I did rip a few seams getting it to come together, but we got there and I am happy. All upcycled fabrics, with a pebbly inner boder and soft grey flannel outer border. Made scrappy binding from some of the fabric in the quilt itself which i think looks nice. One of the corners went a little wonky as well, but that means it is homemade. :) Backed it with a soft purple grey, and quilted simply with some straightline and stitch-in-the-ditch work. I hope that Nico gets many years of warmth out of this Auntie Amy creation! So many friends having babies... and another fun baby quilt on the blog! This time for my beautiful friend Julia S. who recently welcomed Zawadi into the world. While Julia is French, she lives in Joburg with her Zimbabwean partner, so I thought it would be fun to make her a baby quilt with some fabrics spanning the African continent, along with some more classic details. So, I dug out of my stash fabrics from South Africa, Ivory Coast, Tanzania and Ghana, and got to work!
I combined the fabrics into groups of three similar-ish colorways and made strip sets, cutting those down again into 7 inch blocks. I then arranged them into an alternating pattern (both color and direction) and bordered everything in a modern, graphic woodgrain fabric that I love. For quilting I experimented with nesting triangles cutting across the blocks, and then bound it all together with some cool fern binding I made from another favourite fabric from the stash. The design is simple and the palate is perhaps a bit 'ample', but I love this quilt: soft, colorful, funky and beautiful. I hope that Julia and Ish like it, and little Zawadi gets many years of use out if it! |
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