Bright Baby Quilt for a Miracle Baby

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The finished quilt, looking shiny.


I love miracle babies. Henrietta was a miracle baby, of sorts, and now my dear friends, K & E, are set to have one of their own soon. They visited this past weekend, and we had a small shower for E, at which point I gifted her this quilt.

E is the one who taught me to quilt, and I'll just say it is scary business making a quilt for the person who taught you how. I'm generally pretty easy-going about quilts, as E taught me to be, but I was so worried with this one that she'd see all its flaws. She surely will. But hopefully it will be shiny enough to love anyway. Look! Bright colors!

I fell in love with the backing fabric first, and then took about a million years to find the combo of fabrics for the front. Isn't that backing fabric delightful?

I started the quilt during Nemo, the enormous blizzard, and it was a lovely way to spend the day while it blizzed (I made that word up) outside. You need lots of bright coins of fabric on very snowy days, right?




Meatsock helped. He felt it was best to enshroud himself in the bright coins of fabric.

 
Quilt sandwich. I realize I'm kind of going backwards, here.
Quilt top in the sunlight. You can see more of the patterns I picked in this shot.

It was nice to get back to quilting, even if it was perhaps a bit ambitous to think I could finish it in a couple of weeks. I managed, but next time I'll begin sooner. And really, the true joy of it was to make something for someone so completely deserving. These folks, and their baby on the way, are dear to my heart.

Comments

Lisa H. said…
That is a lovely quilt! I love the bright colors. The quilts you made for Lars and Maud are among their most prized possessions.
February 26, 2013 at 11:22 AM
Lisa H. said…
That is a lovely quilt! I love the bright colors. The quilts you made for Lars and Maud are among their most prized possessions.
February 26, 2013 at 11:22 AM
Katherine said…
The backing is spectacular. I have a tough time using showpiece fabrics on the back of my quilts. Great job!
February 26, 2013 at 12:06 PM
Jamie said…
So cute!

How do you get the quilt together? (I don't know real quilting terms, obviously.) How do you connect the quilt top, the back, and the middle stuff? I always just put them on quilting frames and tie them with yarn. Mostly because I made about a billion blankets in young womens like that, so I know how. But I see lots of people's quilts NOT tied with yarn, so I'm curious if they run the quilt through the sewing machine in pretty patterns, or do it by hand, or don't do anything at all.
February 26, 2013 at 1:27 PM
Deja said…
Thanks, Lisa! I'm glad Lars and Maud are digging their quilts. They were fun to make.

Katherine, you have a tough time in what sense? Hard to let them go? Or hard to use them?

Jamie, I use basting spray to stick all three parts together. It's sort of like hairspray, but adhesive. You can find it by the batting, usually. I've also run quuilts through the sewing machine in various patterns, and I meant to do that here, but I ran out of time.
February 26, 2013 at 2:12 PM
MaryAnne said…
So pretty! I sort of know how to quilt, but my binding needs a lot of help!
February 26, 2013 at 9:46 PM
Giuli said…
So gorgeous! I don't think that a baby can have too many homemade quilts or blankets for them to cuddle up in! I definitely think that little Henrietta is a miracle baby, and don't you ever think otherwise. I consider both of my babies to be miracle babies, in different ways. We tried so hard and so long to get little Kizzie that I just gazed in wonder at her for the first year. I was almost afraid to even complain of any aches and pains during my pregnancy with her because I was afraid that I was being ungrateful. This is probably TMI, but I made my doctor pause the other day when she asked me if I was taking birth control, and I laughed and said that the table was more fertile than me and that if God wanted me to have another one, then it was surely His will. I enjoy your happy, lovely quilt! I surely believe that babies should be surrounded by happy, bright colors. It reminds me of Max's baby room in Mississippi, it was literally called "creamsicle" and it was a soft, delightful orange color.
February 27, 2013 at 12:49 AM
Deja said…
Mary Anne, my binding is very fudge-y. It could be vastly improved. I once hand-binded a quilt while I was on bed rest, and that looked awesome, but it took a million years.

Guili, I'm so glad you got your miracle babies. And pregnancy is way hard, whether the babies are miracles of not (but maybe they're all miracles, really). I remember those bright colors in your Hattiesburg house! So lovely. I'm sure the creamsicle fit right in.
February 27, 2013 at 7:55 AM
jes said…
pretty. pretty.
February 27, 2013 at 1:21 PM
Amara said…
How interesting that it changes so much in the sunlight. It looks like a different quilt --brighter and clearer.
March 1, 2013 at 11:21 AM
Amara said…
Posie said she machine binds on the back, then hand binds the front --maybe a compromise?
March 1, 2013 at 11:23 AM
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