Handcrafting An Adorable Baby Quilt

If you're not sure what design you should use, take a trip down to the closest fabric store and take a look at their collection of baby quilt patterns. If it is your first attempt at quilting, remember to keep it simple. A lot of the time less is more. This may mean something like the sky with some white clouds. Many people decide on a patchwork design even for baby quilt patterns. Pink and blue are always appropriate colors for babies so you really can't go wrong with that. If you don't know the baby's gender, than white or yellow is a safe, neutral choice.

Embroidery is a traditional way to add special decorative touches to quilts. Whether by hand or machine, a quilter may accent his or her creation with embroidered flowers or other accents. But today's machine embroidery - for those willing to try it - can make quilting quite different.

Blanket Quilt Wheelchair quilts. People in wheelchairs suffer from the hard surface of the chair and a quilted blanket made to measure for the wheelchair could make all the difference. When thinking of wheelchairs also think about carry bags that could be secured to the chair or arm rests, etc. These could also be made to measure and produced in startling colors to standout and give the wheelchair a bit of personality.

Turn and press this rectangle over the seam allowance, again pressing away from the center piece. Trim the seam allowance close to the stitching line.

Now it is time to start the actual quilting process. You need a small set of scissors, quilt needles (these have a larger eye but are very sharp in order to go through all the layers), quilting thread, thimble and a very comfortable chair.

Your baby shower gift will be complete when the edges are finished and the binding is sewn in place. Of the two types of bindings, crosswise grain and bias, the former is a good choice because there is less risk that a split would damage the entire side of the quilt. Crosswise strips also stretch well enough to curve when needed along the outer edge of the quilt.

The rectangle that will cover side five will be long, as it must extend beyond the fabrics on both angles 1 and 4. To add interest and create a more collaged look, consider the following options: Pieced rectangles, pieced and curved shapes, and pieced fans.

Selvedge edges are about one-half inch in width and run the length of the bolt. The writing on the edge varies in font style, color, and amount of coverage. This then becomes the decoration on this strip. The selvedge edge's size and shape matches another material women used a century ago that was definitely not intended for quilt makers, but instead was a by-product of cigar companies.