Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Baby Quilt Complete

The embroidered baby quilt is finally complete. I finished hand sewing the binding on this weekend and was able to take some pictures of it outside in the bright sunshine. It was a joy to work on knowing my little girl will have something handmade from her mama to keep her warm at night or to snuggle up with at nap time.


Here is a shot of the back of the quilt. I used the left over bear paw quilt block to piece the back, along with the leftover fabric from the front sashing. The wonderful quilt blogs on the internet turned me on to pieced quilt backs and I just love them. Not only are they beautiful, it's a great way to use up every little piece of fabric.


When working on the front of the quilt I knew I needed 2 more blocks to round out the 7 days of the week blocks so the quilt would be a square. Since the embroidery was of little bears I thought a bear paw block would be fitting. I used this incredible book by Jinny Beyer to help draft the block. There is no way I would have been able to do it without her instructions. If you don't have it yet, this book is an essential to any quilter/sewer/designer. There are so many quilt blocks to use for inspiration. The first block I made was the one on the right. However, when it was done I knew the paw was to large and the block needed a frame around it. The orange fabric right next to the pink sashing was too busy. So I redrafted it to accommodate a border and still fit in with my quilt. Not one to let anything go to waste I just used the cast off for the back of the quilt.


Here is a close up of the Sunday block and the quilting. Im pretty new at quilting on my machine but this one turned out nice. I wanted something simple so I just followed the seam line.


To finish it off I always add a quilt label. I didn't always do this so there a few floating around that don't have one :(

I love the look of a hand embroidering the label. I think it adds a nice personal touch for whomever you are making the quilt for. I just choose a font and size I like in Word, then print it off and trace it onto my fabric with a water soluble pen. I most often do this on my back sliding glass door. I wonder what my neighbors think when I start taping bits of paper and fabric to it to trace?


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