Sewing for babies is way more fun than sewing for adults. Everything is smaller, takes less fabric, less time, less angst. So when our daughter and her partner announced that there was a baby on the way, my first thought that I should probably get started on a baby quilt. After all, that's what my mom and my grandma had done when my girls were born.
When I was 7 or 8, my parents painted my bedroom lavender and my mom began working on a quilt and comforter in coordinating fabric. I remember playing under the big quilt frame set up in my grandmother's house, surrounded by the feet of aunts and great-aunts who were quilting. It really was a shared labor of love although I didn't recognize it as such until later in life.
Since I had donated my mom's quilt frame to the church and hadn't yet bought a small frame for myself, I chose to knot the quilt and got started. Fortunately, the best fabric store is local -- Fresh Modern Fabric, owned by my friend, Alice Essinger. Even if I'd know the gender at that time, I'd have chosen fabrics in design and color that any child would love and it turned out Alice stocked the charm pack I was looking for -- Moda's Farm Charm charm pack, Gingiber. Turquoise, red, black, and white are the prominent colors.
Of course, as things always sort of happen....just as I got started, we learned that one baby was actually two babies and of course, two babies require two of everything. So there is a second twin gift underway but that's still a secret - it has a multi-generational story of its own.
Qwill thought the quilt was for him.
Baby quilts are easier only in terms of time and manageability. This charm pack consisted of 40 squares of fabric measuring 5" by 5" each, so cutting time was lessened, although the design required some additional cutting -- border, backing, binding. I used the Baby Lattice Quilt pattern by Amy Smart of Diary of a Quilter.
True to tradition of most of my sewn gifts, I finished it just in time for their baby shower at Taft's Brewpourium in Cincinnati. (Quick plug: Taft's is in former warehouse and includes the restaurant and a large event space -- perfect for a shower, anniversary party, birthday party, etc.)
[Note: The second item will be revealed in August when our oldest daughter arrives for a visit with her nieces. She did a good chunk of the
work on it and passed it on to us
to finish.]