Amy over at Park City Girl is hosting an online Quilt Show on her blog. Its a lovely idea, post your favourite quilt and enter it in the show by linking to her blog. A great idea for creating community. If you have a chance hope on over there and look through the hundreds of links, there is a lot to see.
So this is my entry. I've been working on this quilt on and off since, oh, early last year. It's my current favourite, as it is the one I've just finished and thats the way it works for me, the newest baby is the favourite child. This is really only the fifth quilt I've ever made. I've made it as a gift for my niece. Its supposed to be her 1st birthday present, but she will be two in December, so its a little belated. It's a keepsake/memory quilt made almost entirely out of her baby clothes, the ones that she wore during the first year of her life. I've been wanting to do something like this for awhile, because I always get very attached to my own clothing, and the thing I like best about the history of quilts is that they were made out of reused and repurposed items. Scraps, old clothing, bits and pieces. To me, that's what gives patchwork such impact and resonance; beyond its graphic appeal, which is also huge for me. So I phoned up my sister-in-law and asked if she would like something like this as a gift (hint, never make a hand-made gift for someone unless they want it. Life is too short) and she was thrilled with the idea, so box of baby clothes in hand, I started to cut.
And let me tell you, the cutting was HARD! Emotionally, it's very difficult to take a pair of scissors to a beloved and still functional item of baby clothing. The Dutch in me balked at it (the waste!) and the mother in me balked at it (so precious) but the artist in my kept saying 'do it, do it!' and of course it got easier as I went along.
I decided on 4 inch squares. That seemed to be the best size for getting the most squares of of a garment, and yet being able to save and showcase the cute details like patches and embroidery on t-shirts and onesies. That was probably the most time consuming part too, the cutting and layout.
I went for a tonal, diagonal stripe pattern with the colours, which I am very pleased with. I did not want it to be too overwhelmingly girly-pink, and since my niece had a nicely varied wardrobe, it turned out to have some nice variety. I'm especially happy with the green and turquoise stripes.
And there were so many cute details to be incorporated. I love this little bow with the strawberries on it. Super cute.
Though now, a word of warning. If any of you are planning to attempt a baby clothes quilt like this, learn from my mistakes. I'd never really sewn with knits before, and I'd say, like, 80% of the clothing I had to work with were knits (all onesies and t-shirts are knits and that's mostly what babies wear) and I had a sneaking suspicion that this would be difficult, so I asked the nice guy at my local sewing shop what I should do. He said that I should back them with iron-on interfacing. I thought that sounded like a lot of work. So I only did it for about half of the knit blocks. And boy, do I wish I had done it for all of them! When they were not backed, they were really stretch and hard to sew together, and of course, hard to quilt. It was like sewing pie dough, or wet noodles together. Not fun.
For the back of the quilt, I used a vintage bed sheet. I looked and looked at frips and second hand stores for the perfect one. Its got a little rose motif, but not too much, and not too contemporary. To really personalize it, I saved the front of one of the cutest little dresses, and used it to create a portrait of my niece.
I drew the baby on the fabric and embroidered it by hand, and then appliqued the dress over it.
I'm quite happy with the way the embroidery turned out.
Especially the eyes. I used a different technique than I usually do, and did chain stitch for the fill, which really makes the iris look good.
And I incorporated a few other details into the portrait - items that would not have fit in my 4" square format for the front, but were too good to be left out - like this little apple applique that came off a t-shirt.
For the binding I also used a vintage bed sheet. I love to use stripes for bindings, because I think it adds an extra bit of fun. This was totally the perfect sheet for this quilt. It pretty much exactly matched the backing fabric. Anyways, I'm so happy with the way it turned out. And despite the occasional frustrations, it was really fun to work on. I love my niece, and can't wait to give it to her. Quilting has such great meaning embedded in it; how many little disparate pieces add up to make a beautiful whole. Its a nice metaphor for life, especially a child's life - all those little moments adding up to days and before you know it they are walking and talking and are no longer little babies, but have become little people. And my niece is such a darling little person. Happy Birthday little bird!
Oh my...I love it! Love the idea of using her clothes, and the embroidery and applique on the back...So Cute!
Posted by: mikol | 10/13/2009 at 10:05 PM
Cheerful quilt. Love your embroidery work too! Just delightful.
Thanks for sharing and for participating in the Bloggers Quilt Festival.
SewCalGal
www.sewcalgal.blogspot.com
Posted by: SewCalGal | 10/13/2009 at 10:16 PM
This is such a beautiful quilt! I love it. I'm sure it will be a treasure for a very long time.
Posted by: Allie | 10/13/2009 at 10:32 PM
Fun quilt!
Posted by: Julie Bagamary | 10/14/2009 at 08:59 AM
Adorable! I love the diagonal stripes of squares and your embroidery is beautiful!
Posted by: Rebekah | 10/14/2009 at 01:46 PM
What sweet little details! Love it...
Posted by: Doris | 10/14/2009 at 02:29 PM
I LOVE this quilt!
Posted by: Zonnah | 10/14/2009 at 03:39 PM
what a lovely quilt! I love the embroidery ... simply beautiful work!
hugz
Posted by: Pam | 10/14/2009 at 03:55 PM
Well the picture of the baby back took me totally by surprise. That's because I was staring at all the little bits in the other pictures :) Your niece is one lucky little lady.
Posted by: Carol Hansen | 10/14/2009 at 04:17 PM
I've always wanted to be able to do quilting, but not great with a sewing machine. Anyway my mother used to quilt to and I learned everything from her but that was the one thing that I never got good at. I really like your quilt. Keep on quilting you have a great knack for it.
Posted by: Lillian Burdorf | 10/14/2009 at 05:02 PM
So pretty--excellent work!
Posted by: Heather | 10/14/2009 at 06:11 PM
Well you should just give it a try. Honestly, I still consider my self kind of a non-sewer. I can't make clothes really, and am still just learning. Quilting is easy because it can all be done with straight lines. It's just a big project made of little projects. You could totally do it!
Posted by: Andrea | 10/14/2009 at 06:38 PM
You did a fantastic job! It's really evident how much time you took to get the perfect pieces of the clothing into the squares. The back is awesome - what a great idea! I also love the stripy bind, it's so fun!
Posted by: Kaye Prince | 10/14/2009 at 09:26 PM
Have I ever mentioned that I have no clue how you have the patience to do work like this? Awesome job!
Posted by: Mr. LemurBoy | 10/15/2009 at 10:30 AM
Wow! Amazing! The only problem with having something so precious for a child is trying to decide if she's allowed to get her sticky little hands on it! Its absolutely beautiful, Andrea.
Posted by: Caroline | 10/15/2009 at 07:11 PM
Wow- love the portrait! Really wonderful work!
Posted by: stephanie | 10/16/2009 at 12:40 AM
Oh, what a wonderful keepsake !
Her mother is going to be THRILLED with this.
That is quite an accomplishment, and a wonderful story........you should print it up to send with the quilt for the baby's book !
Posted by: ...dotty... | 10/16/2009 at 01:41 PM
Aw, thanks guys! Your compliments make me proud. And she will totally be allowed to put her sticky little hands all over it. Its made out of her clothes, so there was some staining here and there already, which makes it not so sacrosanct, if you know what i mean. Also, a bonus of using all second hand fabric is that it will wash easily.
Posted by: finger thumb | 10/16/2009 at 07:01 PM
Wow, wow, wow. Dre, you rock. That quilt is the most amazing quilt I've ever seen. You are the best aunt ever. I wish I was your neice. What a treasure.
Posted by: Amanda | 10/16/2009 at 08:52 PM
Thank you Amanda! I'll let you know when I need more nieces. You'll be the first in line. :)
Posted by: finger thumb | 10/16/2009 at 09:20 PM
Wow! That is terrific! We're having our 1st baby the end of March and I'd love to do something similar. The back is my favorite, I think. I don't have the embroidery skills you do so I better start practicing now!
Well done!!!
Posted by: Sara | 10/17/2009 at 07:42 AM
You could totally do it Sara. All you need to embroider is fingers and patience. I've been to your blog and it looks like you have both. Plus you have more than 5 months before your baby gets here. That's plenty of time :)
Posted by: finger thumb | 10/17/2009 at 10:38 PM
love that quilt!! so special and lovely!
xo m
Posted by: mindy sue | 10/18/2009 at 10:48 PM
Lovely, and now you get to look at it all the time.
Posted by: willy-nilly | 10/20/2009 at 08:23 PM
Yeah, its a good thing I took those photos, because its gone off to its new home. I'll post about that soon.
Posted by: finger thumb | 10/21/2009 at 10:03 PM