Homemade Crib Bedding

For making perfectly straight cuts, choose a thick, clear acrylic ruler. A good size to start with is a 6x24" rectangular ruler marked in 1/4" increments.

For each block you want to make also cut a five-sided piece of solid fabric. Make the sides angular, not parallel. Don't make it too big or too small roughly about a ninth of the block (like a tic tac toe pattern on the muslin foundation square). It will serve as your crazy, off center middle of your design.

Blanket Quilt I decided on using 35 pictures for Peggy's memory quilt. I chose pictures that showed her children at different stages of their lives. As well as pictures showing her and her husbands age regression. Her favorite color is blue, so I chose a dark blue with a light blue design, and a light blue with a dark blue design for the blocks. One thing to keep in mind when doing one for a person with Alzheimer's' is to try and keep the material fairly plain or quiet. When using a material that is very busy or loud, it just adds to their overall confusion. Something you definitely do not want.

Made To Order. Making quilts for people that know what they want is a lucrative niche, as these people already have exactly what they want in their head and are willing to pay to get the result they are looking for. This niche can be broken down into smaller niches, such as, using memorabilia to make a quilt or providing quilted products for bedrooms only.

The method above uses machine embroidery on relatively small quilts. Larger quilts can be done the same way or may be quilted with machine embroidery by individual quilt blocks. Experiment to decide which method is easiest for you and remember that the machine embroidery quilting method may change with each unique project.

If your fabric hasn't already been cut into squares, use a pair of fabric shears, or a rotary cutter, to do so now. If you use a rotary cutter, you'll also need a cutting mat. Otherwise, you could end up damaging whatever's underneath the fabric.

Handmade Baby Blankets A handmade baby blanket gift speaks to the heart of any new mother. Knowing someone spent the time, thought and effort to make a hand made gift in this day and age means a lot. You can crochet, quilt, embroider a baby blanket to make it unique and special. In fact, you can make a baby blanket that requires no sewing at all, and will be just as special because you put yourself into the gift.

Quilting Fabric. You'll need two squares of fabric that are the exact same size. You can use any sized fabric you want, but these three sizes work best for a baby blanket or quilt.