Making this baby quilt turned out to be a good lesson in designing a quilt. A design that looks great on paper doesn't always look so wonderful once it is sewn together!
I wanted to make a quick baby quilt for a neighbor who just had a baby boy. I wanted the quilt to be cute, but I didn't want to spend a lot of time making it. I had 2 sets of left over fire and rescue children's fabric and and some text fabric that I didn't use in another project. I had ample fabric to make a small baby quilt.
Here is my sketch for the quilt, and the initial cutting instructions. One strip came turned out to be 1 inch too long when the pieces were sewn together, but I never expect a pattern I'm designing by hand to 100% mathematically accurate.
When I'm making strip quilts I put all the pieces of each strip between subsequent pages of my design book. This does a good job of keeping the strips separate and in order.
The quilt top went together very quickly. I was feeling really pleased thinking this pattern was going to turn out to be a zippy "quilt top in an afternoon" project. But before I finished sewing all the strips together, I put them up on the design wall. Hmm. There wasn't anything wrong with it, but it just looked boring.
Appliqué to the rescue! I had a bit of extra material from the bottom border. I to cut out a fire engine, a fire hydrant and pair of boots. I machine appliquéd them onto the strips before I finished sewing the strips together. The appliqués add a bit of movement and now I am pleased with it. The back is a solid piece of the firefighter dogs which I fussy cut for the strips. It will give the quilt an extra depth and make it even more interesting.
What would I do differently the next time I'm designing a quilt like this? Next time I would cut shorter focus blocks and space them out in a pattern designed to make the viewer's eye dance over the pattern.
Cutting the quilt, piecing it and sewing on the appliqués took me about 4 hours. So this really is a quick quilt. I'm going to leave sandwiching the quilt and quilting it for another day!
I wanted to make a quick baby quilt for a neighbor who just had a baby boy. I wanted the quilt to be cute, but I didn't want to spend a lot of time making it. I had 2 sets of left over fire and rescue children's fabric and and some text fabric that I didn't use in another project. I had ample fabric to make a small baby quilt.
Here is my sketch for the quilt, and the initial cutting instructions. One strip came turned out to be 1 inch too long when the pieces were sewn together, but I never expect a pattern I'm designing by hand to 100% mathematically accurate.
When I'm making strip quilts I put all the pieces of each strip between subsequent pages of my design book. This does a good job of keeping the strips separate and in order.
The quilt top went together very quickly. I was feeling really pleased thinking this pattern was going to turn out to be a zippy "quilt top in an afternoon" project. But before I finished sewing all the strips together, I put them up on the design wall. Hmm. There wasn't anything wrong with it, but it just looked boring.
Appliqué to the rescue! I had a bit of extra material from the bottom border. I to cut out a fire engine, a fire hydrant and pair of boots. I machine appliquéd them onto the strips before I finished sewing the strips together. The appliqués add a bit of movement and now I am pleased with it. The back is a solid piece of the firefighter dogs which I fussy cut for the strips. It will give the quilt an extra depth and make it even more interesting.
What would I do differently the next time I'm designing a quilt like this? Next time I would cut shorter focus blocks and space them out in a pattern designed to make the viewer's eye dance over the pattern.
Cutting the quilt, piecing it and sewing on the appliqués took me about 4 hours. So this really is a quick quilt. I'm going to leave sandwiching the quilt and quilting it for another day!