The Quilt

Yay! Sadie's memory quilt is finally finished!
This was the inspiration: from Martha Stewart Baby:

First came the cutting. My version is made of 130 4x4" squares of fabric from favorite baby clothes. I was shooting for a 12 square by 15 square quilt, but ran out of fabric and oomph at 10x13, which coincidentally is my birthday :) Then, some obsessive placing and positioning.

I was going for a watercolor effect, with a gradation of bright colors from upper left corner down to lower right. I don't know that anyone else will notice, but at least it gave me some direction!

I got it all pieced together last August, but I wanted the perfect piece of matelasse for the back. That took the better part of a year to find. Thanks fabric.com for finally getting some in stock! It isn't perfectly white, but that's ok.

I did find a wonderful raspberry crochet yarn to tie the quilt together, but could never find the right color binding. Finally, I just made my own:
I even did the nifty continuous binding strip trick, by cutting a square into a parallelagram and sewing it into a tube, then you cut along your measured line, and you have a continuous strip of fabric! And since my nifty bias tape maker is for 1/2" SINGLE fold, I had to use another trick for making 1/2" double fold as seen here: Gotta love sewing blogs for all these neat tricks. It isn't really true quilt binding, but sewn in between the quilt top and backing like large piping.

This is the finished product:

(Ugh--why is it such a pain to load pictures onto Blogger? I must be doing something wrong. And why did it turn all my pictures around?

It was fun to do, and turned out pretty much like I wanted it to. Sadie seems to like it: she tried to go "nigh-nigh" while I was ironing it!

Ok, so I lied.

I can't finish the quilt, so I am starting something new.

I've had this pattern since the summer, but even my tiny Sadie has (presumably) grown out of the NB/S/M size. I should have made something from it by now, but--I haven't. It was pretty easy to extrapolate a 1/4 inch here, 1/8 inch there, to the next size up. So--hopefully it will work out--we shall see.

I've cut out the View A--sleeved dress. My first sleeves--believe it or not! I had this fabric that MIL gave me, and a coworker gave the scraps to her. Fun free stuff! It is a little more teal than the picture shows.

And, cutting is as far as I've gotten because it requires interfacing at the placket (another first), and I don't have any left. Why did Walmart discontinue its sewing department right as I developed this hobby??

I do have this book, and it makes me feel as though I can accomplish anything, even sleeves and plackets.

As for the quilt, I have a backing delimma. I really want a piece of white matelasse. It is harder to find than one might expect, I can only find a couple of online sources. And they are poly/cotton blend. I ordered an inexpensive matelasse bedspread from Walmart and well, you get what you pay for. It is 100% polyester, and you can sure tell it! Ick! It doesn't feel good at all, and doesn't belong with all my beloved cotton baby cloth squares. That makes me a little wary of the blends too. I really don't want to pay more than $20-30, but I may have to break down and buy a coverlet from my department store. Or wait till it goes on sale :(

Any fabric selection suggestions are appreciated!

I'm going to finish this before I start anything else.

This is my first quilt. It is made of 4x4 (finished) squares of Sadie's clothing. Favorites from her first year :). There are some special pieces--her coming home outfit is in the upper left square, her 1st birthday monogrammed bib is in the lower right. In between are lots of squares of her birthday dress fabric. I used lots of pockets, and other details. I also did a no-no and used some knit garments that I just couldn't leave out. And no, I didn't treat them at all, so there is a little pulling and non-matching of seams :(.

I tried to go for a bit of a "watercolor" affect with some gradation from left to right and top to bottom.

This top was completed in August (!) And here it sits, waiting to be sewn to the batting and backed. I first wanted a paisley minky for the back, but it just doesn't have enough structure. Yes it is cuddly soft, but just puddles in your hand. And, it is of course knit, which this quilt has far enough of! This will only be a tied quilt, at each square corner. [My very basic sewing machine and I are a long way from machine quilting. And I'm the mother of a 5 and a 2 year old, so NO to hand quilting as well.] So, I'm going to go with Martha's suggestion of matelasse. I've ordered an inexpensive coverlet, and as soon as it arrives I hope to finish.

I've posted about the inspiration before.

As you can see, mine is very much like the model, in mostly pinks and whites. And I've picked out the best raspberry yarn to tie it with, but every binding tape I've found is a shade or two off. So I guess I'll be making my own.

Yes, I'm here :)

I haven't reported in lately, but I have been doing a little sewing. This summer, I completed a quilt top for Sadie. It is based on a memory quilt from an old issue of Martha Stewart Kids.

This is the inspiration photo:

The blocks are made of our favorite clothes from her first year. I still have to back it, but that will wait until the first of the new year. I've been working on a couple of Christmas presents lately...