Friday, January 4, 2019

A Quilt for My Nephew

My sister Molly gave birth to Donovan Quade in June 2018 and my intentions for the past six months have been to gift him a baby quilt like I did for his brother and sister. He has had to wait the longest for his gift but I did get it done in time for Christmas! Hopefully he has at least another month of tummy time to enjoy it on the floor.


I wanted to attempt a triangle pattern that I had seen on Pintrest and finding the pattern wasn't hard -- it was picking out the colors. This did not need to be a gender neutral quilt so I felt a little more confident in choosing the bold blues and greens.


Triangles get a little tricky because they need to be a little more exact when it comes to piecing it together in order to see the point. Some look awesome and others, well -- lets just say the baby won't notice!


When I made his big brother's quilt I chose a brighter more fun backing fabric and I wanted to do the same for Donovan (who has the same nickname as my dad did when he was a kid -- Donnie!) When I saw this race car fabric when blue and green I just about fell over -- it was a perfect match. And I love the added orange too. I think it might keep him interested in his quilt when the toddler/preschool years come! I have a little experience when it comes to boys and cars . . . 



I tried a few new techniques when it came to the binding and although it took me a few tries to get it right, in the end it looked much better than my previous technique attempts. I enjoyed learning new things with this quilt. What were the techniques you ask? Well, I found one youtube video to show me how to do the mitered corners, connecting the binding once I made it all the way around and also how to properly hand stitch the back of the binding. It's never too late to improve!


I sure hope little Donnie loves his quilt but more importantly knows how much I love him. So far he seems to be a pretty chill baby who loves a good tickle and giggles often. Congratulations, Molly!

Quilts for Babes and Dolls

I was going through my sewing scraps and rather than toss them out wanted to find a good use for them. I knew my niece Adley loved her baby doll so I got busy and made her a doll blanket and pillow for Christmas. I used up every piece of left over fabric I had from when I made Adley's baby blanket. I wished I had a few more! But in the afternoon it took me to put it together I think it came out quite well.


I think the best part was that when she opened it, it was her daddy that noticed first that it matched the baby blanket I had made nearly three years ago! Precious! (It helps that it has deer on it!)


Like I said I used every scrap so the back and the pillow didn't exactly match as much I had hoped, but I think baby doll will be okay with that. I remember very fondly the doll blanket my great aunt made me and I hope this little girl might treasure this the same way. (No pressure!)