Two baby quilts

Many quilters look at baby and child quilts as the perfect avenue to go easy and do an edge-to-edge. I am not so lucky, most days!  My clients send me quilts to do because of my custom quilting.  So, I get to make all the sweet baby quilts look fantastic.  These are actually jobs that are super fun to quilt because they are on and off in under a day.  The ones here took me on the order of 4 hours each, give or take.  They are actually a little lighter on the quilting than I often do, but this makes for a very drapable and snugly quilt.

 This one is for Jan, a very prolific quilter from Napa.  She is often sending baby quilts as well as others.  Her typical quilt though, is appliqued.  This one has just a touch of applique - the birdies and some text.  Applique this large would benefit from having either a puffier batting or stitching on the applique, BUT...there is piecing underneath 2 of the birds, so I opted not to stitch on them.  I personally, remove the back fabric, but I am reluctant to do this to someone else's quilt.  They are still very cute.

 I chose a simple triple stitch/argyle effect on the gray squares.  Though not clear, the stitching lines are both white and pink.

 Here's a look at the back, which is mostly a lighter fabric.  Pretty, gentle texture.  I love a densely quilted quilt, but really, not all need this, and not all want to pay for that.  Simple and pretty is enough.

 Here's a second quilt, but for a Maine lady.  It is relatively simple too.  It's basic so that the fabrics and quilting can show.

 The one thing I had to do was something interesting in that gray rectangle.  We agreed on quilting some of the animals from the fabric in an aqua thread.  I made templates from a cereal box, using Press-n-Seal.  I think I have shown you this (if not, then it is a good tutorial for another day).

 Here's a closeup of Dumbo...

 And the hippo...

 I discovered rather early in the quilting process that I was probably short on my budget (ie, her max cost was in jeopardy if I just quilted as desired!).  Two reasons for this were the two flanges I had to deal with (yes they are as big a pain as you might think!), and she asked me to center a panel on the backing.  I gobbled up 1/4 of my budget before I had taken a stitch!  I had to get creative with the patterns to make the most of my time.

But...I am a sucker, and rather than doing fast feathers, I started with the overlapping swirls in the white area.  They were not nearly as fast as I hoped!  My problem, not hers.  I chose something a bit simpler, and geometric for the large panels of animal and dot fabrics.  Often prints look best with a simple/geometric quilting, as it does not compete with the prints.  Clamshells was ideal.

The border is a 1"-1/4" bead board, which stitches reasonably quick, and looks fantastic on outer borders.  It, too, does not compete with the polka-dots.  Here is my back...YES - it is actually centered.  I don't do that everyday, and I did warn the client it might not be perfectly centered.  It is flannel and super soft.

So, I am down to just a few quilts in my studio, but they are doozies.  There's a large Neimeyer star, a big custom of another pattern, and another Ladies of the Sea.  Not sure if I will conquer these before January, but it does feel good to have all but 2 of my XMAS quilts done, and most of the smaller stuff finished.

I have to return to getting my teaching goodies ready next, as well as a show quilt that may or may not be ready for MQX.  The quilting is still not finished.  My personal motivation is largely to blame. I am writing patterns for a couple of quilts - boy who knew how much work that would be?!?  You probably think I forgot about the hexagons.  Not a chance - They are just about to get the backing pieced so I can have some hand applique to do.  I want that quilt ready for the fall shows.


...sigh, the crazy lady clearly has her head in the cloud.

Quilt on, friends!