Thursday, November 20, 2014

Lucky Penny's Rules for Baby Quilting

I made a quilt for my friend's new baby last year.  A quilt that is loved and used every day.  I've been told that my friend's husband showed the quilt to all visitors.  When a little brother arrived, of course I wanted to make another.  He needed one of his own.  But, as the maker, it had to live up to the success of the first quilt.  I did a modified log cabin block that I picked up from a class on Creativebug, Modern Log Cabin Quilting.  The pattern was for a table runner.  I did sixteen blocks for a top that was 48" square before long arm quilting.  The original design used buttons for the center of the block.  I substituted fussy cut circles for the centers, with prints of dogs, flowers, bugs and birds.  The piece was long arm machine quilted with a fun pattern of intersecting rounded squares called Mach 1.  I like it so much that I want to use it in a Scrappy Trip Along quilt that I have working for me.
My rules for baby quilts pretty much apply to all of my quilting work.
1. Sharp Contrast.   I pretty much like this in all of my color work, knitting included.  What I love about quilting is that it also is a play of color and pattern.
2.  Use collections.   I collect small cuts of fabrics I love.  Usually no longer than a yard.  Exceptions are prints that I might want to use on a quilt back.  The only real exception was the Tammis Keefe dog fabric that I purchased entire bolts of.  Many of the fabrics used in this quilt were in the first quilt, and I made a point to include fabrics that my friend said she loved from the first.
3.  Lots of things for a child to look at.  This quilt, and the first, has all manner of letters, numbers, animals, birds, and bugs in the printed fabrics.
4.  Boys can like flowers.  I don't shy away from florals in quilts for boys or men.
More of this quilt, and more rules in posts to follow.

No comments: