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Welcome to my Blog

I am a grandmother to 4 little girls. I blog about the things I make for them, review patterns, provide tutorials on how I've dealt with techniques or problems, which I hope may help others, and give links to the (mostly) free patterns I use. Every so often, I do a 'Best of..' post listing the best free patterns I've found under specific headings - babies, girls, boys etc. Enjoy the Blog!

Monday 28 September 2015

A Quilted Baby Sleeping Bag

More quilting – a baby sleeping bag. (Just in case you thought the heading referred to  quilted baby!)




I wrote here and here about making cot quilts for baby cribs and cots.

After making my third baby cot quilt, I also had a few of the quilting squares left over, so I decided to experiment with a diamond pattern (actually just squares used on the diagonal).

Sewing a diagonal pattern needs more squares than a straight rectangle. You can work it out mathematically how many more, if you want to! I found I needed about 15- 30% more, but it all depends on the shape you are making. My original plan was to make a long rectangle, on the diagonal. 


The idea was that I would have a lovely long patchwork strip that I could use to make a nice little gathered skirt for a baby girl.This failed, as you will see below, but I ended up with a very nice baby sleeping bag. You can find out how to avoid my mistakes, and make a quilted sleeping bag (or just a sleeping bag) for a baby, below. 
READ MORE

Thursday 24 September 2015

Finishing a Baby Quilt


Here's how to turn a quilted material into a baby quilt.




In my last blog, I showed how to make the quilted material (Stage 1). Of course, if you wanted to, you could buy some material ready-printed in a quilt design - but it wouldn't be the same!


I also referred to the very useful You Tube videos from Jenny of Missouri Star Quilt Company that helped get me started. 

Here's where I got to in the last blog.



Read more to find out what to do next!

Baby Crib Quilts


Baby crib quilts




Well, of course, it started with one. But by the time the first quilt was made, granddaughter No. 2 had arrived (earlier than expected), and by the time HERS was made, No. 3 was on the way. (I have two daughters, and at one stage they were both expecting.) So the first two quilts, above, were made in quick succession, with the third one a few months later.

These were all made with ready-cut squares, a wide border, some polyester batting, a backing, and a lot of double fold bias tape. But they weren’t difficult, and if you’d like to know how I made them, and how you could make one, too, read on below.