Baby Quilt for new Granddaughter
I knew it all along – I am NOT a quilter! Though I love and appreciate them and all the work it takes, it is just not my ‘cup of tea’. BUT, when one is expecting her first GRANDDAUGHTER, one just MUST make her a quilt, Agree?
Sew…yep, I did. Quite the saga – and sharing here to make you ‘Quilters’ smile.
Anyway — 2 weeks ago on a Sunday, I guilted myself into realizing I REALLY needed to make this darlin’ a quilt. I’d made her her first DOLL from this fabric, (which the Mama loved) and since the strong request for the nursery is “CORAL and AQUA please, Mom”, AND because I’d picked up some fat quarters of the same line of fabric to match the doll and her clothes at Sew Many Ideas here in Jackson, I thought I’d see if I had enough to make an EZ quilt. Sure enough – before Sunday evening was over, I had pieced them all – AND, was SO proud of myself! I went to bed with quite a smug, accomplished feeling!
The next morning, I sandwiched and pinned it together with the backing and promptly cut all the excess off – YEP, BEFORE I had added the accent border and larger border. Thinking back, I had thought all night long how I would ‘quilt’ the sandwich. ( Remember, I AM NOT a quilter.!) Anyway – I knew I could solve that border issue somehow, but I was obsessed at this point with how I would ‘quilt’ it. I had purchased nice variegated thread, and I made a stab at free motion quilting – NOT! Then, I decided on soft undulating swirls, which I did up both sides narrowly, and one big one in the middle. OK – but it needed more. There would be scallop motifs in the border, so I decided to create some scallops in the quilting where it needed it yet. Below is my VERY scientific quilting design tools! The lid to my small food processor/chopper, and a ruler! It worked – so I was a happy camper. Now…onto fixing that BORDER!
ALAS – I had enough fabric if I just went back to the store to get 1/2 yard more. After adding the solid aqua narrow accent border, I promptly cut the wider border, ALSO cutting the same width for the back as well. I did the Fronts first, adding some more batting in there to ‘puff’ it out and then turned it over. DURN!!!! I then realized that the border I’d cut for the back should have been cut the width of the solid aqua accent border PLUS 2 seam allowances WIDER than what I’d cut it. Stop laughing! I can assure you, I was NOT laughing at this point….
Sewing teaches persistence is what I tell the moms of the kids I teach…so I was NOT to be outdone by this quilt! And, after all, I already had this much time in it, and the comitment was made. SEW…did I have enough of the solid to make the same accent border on the backside to fill in the gap? Yep – eeeked it out.
MUCH engineering and ‘fanageling’ later, I had my quilt. I added a binding, and stitched love and prayers into the handwork to finish it off.
My prayer is that this will wrap up our first little baby granddaughter all healthy, along with a healthy Mama, to go home. She’s making her debut a little early due to a condition that has developed, Cholestasis which makes my daughter’s hands and feet ITCH like crazy. I’ll add a pic of our baby girl (no – no name for sure as yet). Please pray for safe travel for us, AND for the baby and mama, proud Daddy AND #1 Grandson – who is VERY VERY excited!