Baby quilt for a little boy

We’re keeping with a theme here.  My last post was about the quilt I made for my friends J and N’s little girl.  This post will feature the quilt I made for my friend S’s baby boy.  I made the quilts around the same time and I think you’ll note the appearance of several of the same fabrics, including the ducky flannel.  The banana fabric also makes an appearance.  (As I type, I can see leftovers of it hanging out of my yellow/cream/gold fabric bin and I’m trying to think about what else I can make with the scraps.  I think it’s the cutest fabric.  I suspect it was part of one of those sock monkey collections.)

I made patches with strips of four in a red-yellow-green-blue pattern and I alternated placing them vertically or horizontally.  I don’t remember the measurements, I’m afraid.  There are twenty-four total patches, arranged four by six.  I purposely used bright primary colors (and green), in child-appropriate prints – they feature lots of animals, but the important thing for me was that they be bright.  People who read our blog regularly will surely have noticed my affinity for mixing lots and lots of bright prints.  My quilts are rarely subdued.  I suppose that’s my design sensibility.  It’s pleasing to me and I think it works well for a baby quilt.

The top of the quilt

A close up of the patches

Another close up

I added strips to the edges to get the size I wanted (although now I don’t remember what size that was).  First, a flannel border with letters that spell out the word “bear” and little bears to match.  Then, rubber ducky prints (not flannels – the ducky flannel appears in a couple of the patches).  Finally, the graphic red border.  This is a holdover from the train quilt I made my grandpa.  I had yards and yards of it – it, too, still exists in scrap form somewhere in my red/pink fabric bin.

The borders

I quilted it by machine.  I quilted criss-crossing lines over the patches.  I used baby blue thread.  I sewed two lines going vertically on the left and right sides of each patch and two lines horizontally at the top and bottom of each patch.  I think the pictures clarify that better than describing it could.  (A picture is worth a thousand words!)  My quilting isn’t entirely straight, I’m afraid.

Close ups of the quilting

I bought this adorable blue bunny fabric for the backing.  I love it, too.  Maybe more than the bananas.  I mean, the bananas are so whimsical but the bunny fabric is so perfect for a baby quilt, isn’t it?

The back of the quilt

A close up of the quilting – which shows off the adorable bunnies

I hope you’ve enjoyed my posts about the baby quilts.    I haven’t had to make any baby quilts recently.  I believe my next posts will be about more current projects.

Baby quilt for a little girl

I promised that my next post would be about the non-Christmas mantle runner I made for my parents, except I don’t appear to have any pictures of it.  I shall have to take pictures next time I visit them.  In the meantime, here is the quilt I made for my friends N and J (the ones for whom I made the wedding quilt I posted about a month or so ago) when they had their baby girl several years ago.

I picked yellow, since it’s a neutral color – I didn’t want to go overly pink.  I LOVE the banana print.  I have very little of it left, which is a pity because it’s adorable.  I think (?) I bought it for the quilt, but it’s been awhile so I’m not sure.  I wanted a window pane effect.  I used colorful squares, some of them made of the cute flannels people sell for baby quilts.   I’d bought cute nursery rhyme fabrics, including two of the “Hey diddle diddle” nursery rhyme, one in flannel and one not flannel, with a matching striped flannel fabric.  I used strips of fabric for edges on the front and the back.

The top of the quilt

I hand-quilted stars and moons into the places where the banana strips cross.  I also hand-quilted the corner windowpane squares.

A hand-quilted moon

A star hand-quilted into one of the corner patches – note the strips of flannel on two sides of the patch

The back features the nursery rhyme fabrics.

The back of the quilt

A close up of the back showing the nursery rhyme fabrics – the central piece (a flannel) has lines from “Hey diddle diddle” and both fabrics feature characters from the nursery rhyme.

A close up of one of the quilted stars, from the back

I used yellow thread for the quilting, which blended into the front but showed up nicely on the back.

I embroidered the baby’s name on a patch on the front in pink thread.  I thought the final product was so cute and bright.  The flannel also made it nice and soft.  I don’t use flannel much, except for baby quilts – I usually only buy it for that purpose.