The dream of making a baby quilt came one day when my neighbor lent me her library book. I want to say it was Bend The Rules Sewing but since then I have read so many books that I don't remember which one was my first. But what ever book it was, it inspired me with a very easy looking quilt that didn't seem like it was beyond my beginner sewing capabilities. So the first thing I did was plan out my quilt.
The first thing to do was to make sure that quilt top would have the right measurements for my batting. Jo-Ann's was selling batting at 50% off the day I bought the batting and I thought so far in advance as to buy two in case I screwed up the first quilt, or that it turned out okay and I would use it to make a second. It said it was crib sized but the batting is actually better sized for a toddler bed.
Once I had all the measurements and the paper colored the way that I wanted the blanket to look, I cut out my fabric! The strips of fabric didn't actually fit the size of the batting and I could have trimmed it down but I didn't want to so I added a border onto the strips. Once it was all cut out I laid it down to admire it and motivate myself!
Once I had it laid out in the orientation I wanted, I sewed each of the strips together lengthwise so that I had long strips. Once I had sewn all of those pieces together I sewed all of the strips together. Once that was done, I sewed the two borders onto the strips.
Next I layered the back fabric, the batting and then top fabric all together. Then, since I don't have a quilters frame, I proceeded to push pins through the snugly pulled fabric into the carpet. I had to make sure I went through the carpet and into the padding that lays under the carpet. Once the entire blanket was snugly attached to the rug I went through and using quilters safety pins I attached those in place of the pins so that the 3 layers wouldn't shift.
Once I had safety pinned the dickens out of that quilt, I sewed around the edges of the quilt to have the outer border stabilized so that when I added the edge fabric on I wouldn't have to fight with all three layers. Also it allowed me to trim the batting and the two fabric layers all to the same size, another help when adding the edging. I haven't done any quilting and though I usually do know the name of the edge piece, the name is total avoiding me at this point in time.
So I sewed on the edge by first putting right sides together on the back side of the quilt and then once it was sewn on all the way I folded it over the edge and folded the edge of the edge fabric under and pinned it. Then I sewed the top layer and edge with a zig zag stitch to try to also catch the seam on the underside of the quilt.
When that was done I set to tieing the quilt! I put in a movie and laid back and used a big yarn needle and went every few inches down the strips. Then I proceeded to not use the quilt for many months, not until the summer cooled down and Baby D was old enough that he wasn't being swaddled anymore.
And there you have it! A quilt for the absolute beginner! I enjoyed it and it was really easy with all the straight sewing, no curves except for the corners. And now my baby boy loves his quilt and likes to be snuggled in it before he finally is put down for the night in his crib.
