You know the drill. You receive an invitation to a baby shower six weeks in advance. The thought to sew a baby quilt enters your mind, but you put off the process. Gulp, 10 days before the event you decide to start the project.
That’s just what I did last month. Yet, I decided to go ahead and start the quilt with hopes of getting it done on time. I cut a few corners, taking a nontraditional approach to the actual quilting. I thought I’d share my weekend of sewing to create what I call a “Tummy Time Quilt!”
Quilt to Give—Baby Size
You might have read the 10-day Blog Tutorial on my Quilt to Give project. My objective with that tutorial was to show how to create full-sized bed quilts. My most recent project, the featured baby quilt, down-sized the quilt. You can read how to cut the columns of the quilt during day 2 of the tutorial. The difference is that the side strips are just 42″ long—the width of the fabric.
I created seven columns with the following solid strip colors—one royal blue, two turquoise, two lime green, and another two with the light green colors—showcasing the scrappy centers. The inner border was cut 1-1/2″ and the outer border 3″ wide. You can find out about borders on day 8 of the tutorial.
The finished quilt width was 48″, wider than a traditional width of fabric which is usually 42″–44″. Instead of buying two lengths of fabric for the backing in order to accommodate the width of the finished quilt, I cut one length of the backing fabric in half, made another column, and pieced the layers together. That was the smartest thing I’ve done in a long time!
To this point, the piecing took me about 6 hours on a Saturday afternoon. Granted, I’ve made this quilt before, so I’ve had a little experience! Plan on an 8-hour project so that you don’t have to sew like you’re running a marathon!
Monday morning, I asked one of my sewing studio stitchers to layer the quilt backing, batting, and top. I used Warm and Natural for the batting, one of my favorite battings. She pinned the layers together, preparing the project for the quilting portion.
Rather than stitch in the ditch, hand quilt (no time for that), or free-motion stitch to quilt the layers together, I opted to stitch a single decorative “star” at 4″ intervals. Check your owner’s manual as to how you stitch one single decorative stitch. On my Baby Lock, all I need to do is select the single stitch icon.
No specific measuring needed here, just use your fist as an approximate measurement. Mark with an air erasable fabric marking pen. Notice that the markings are not linear. It’s a lot easier to stitch quickly when the placement is staggered!
We changed thread colors a couple of times throughout the stitching process. We didn’t do it too many times as we were under a deadline.
Consider using contrasting thread in the bobbin so the “stars” shine through to the underside of the quilt.
Adding a label, embroidered or hand-written, is always a nice touch.
Add binding using your favorite method. You can find online directions at day 10 of the Quilt to Give Tutorial.
I hope you’ll try one of these techniques when making any size quilt. I’m especially fond of the decorative stitching tip!
For additional column-type quilt ideas, please refer to the Column Quilts book which contains my original, less scrappy, column quilt. You can watch this program online!
What’s your favorite quilting tip?
Bye for now,
When I make any baby quilt I always put a small loop in one corner of the quilt, just big enough for the baby to put a finger through. You would be surprised at how many of the mothers I sent the quilts to say their child won’t go to sleep without finding the corner that has the finger loop on it and putting their finger through it and then falling asleep immediately. They think I am some kind of genius for thinking of this, but I got the idea from my cousin’s daughter who always put her finger through the tag at the back of her top when she was upset and started sucking her finger. My cousin finally had to cut off the tags on her shirts as she got older and continued to do it, but I thought that if that tag was a comfort to Mary then it might be nice to have a “tag” at the corner of the quilts I made. Turns out I was right!
Are there instructional cps for baby lock machines?
Judy, honestly, I don’t know what a cps is! For a direct answer, please leave this same question on the Baby Lock Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/babylocksewing
Thank you!
Hi Nancy,
I enjoy your show on TV every week, and was glad to get the email with this idea in it. Can you tell me- Is it possible to use any other thread in the bobbin besides “bobbin” for your –pre-set embroidery patterns? I would think this would look great but the “bobbin thread” is so fine.
I too am a last minute person after believing I had “plenty” of time to complete a project…
Thanks for the great ideas and all the inspiration from your years of experience.
June, embroidery machines are calibrated to stitch the best with “bobbin thread.” We’ve tried other options with poor results.
Thanks for following along.
I just love the occasional star idea for quilting. I am wondering if I could get away with that with the Grace machine and useing the snowflake pattern now and then. It is not an embroidery machine…maybe could set it for the largest setting and make the “snowflake” ..well that is what it looks like…but it is in a line. Hemmm will have to mess with it. Glad you got done..The tag is a nice touch…one he will be proud of from you! Cute quilt.
Barbara, The snowflake pattern would be ideal!
The single decorative stitch is a darling idea. I use a lot of scallop and curvy stitches when I’m quilting a small quilt for little ones. It’s fun. Thanks for the good ideas.
Now that’s what I call quick thinking! What a great idea to use the decorative stitch on the baby quilt! And, the perfect size. Love the idea of the backing and can see it in the near future as one of my granddaughter’s friends will be needing a blanket soon. Thanks, Nancy. You always come up with great ideas.
I don’t know if this is the place I go to ask a question. Here goes. I dooenwadld the 3D Rose and petals yesterday. they show up as dooenwadld but I don’t know how to open them up into my embroiderys. I have a brand new machine, other one died and I have lost all my designs and now I’m so confused as to what to do next. Please someone tell me how to get these designs to open, I really want to make them. Thank You Emilieann Lingle
I have a t-shirt quilt that I’ve been trying to figure out how to quilt, and this would work wonderfully. Thank you for the idea!