Baby Blankets For Every Season
Making a quilt takes some time and effort. You may want to get started as soon as you find out your loved one is having a baby. This will leave you plenty of time to get the quilt done, and contact other family members who want to be involved in the project.
First decide on the finished foundation (muslin) size for each block and cut the muslin one half inch larger than the desired finished block size. This allows for any puckering or tight tension variations that could draw up the size. You can always cut the finished piece down to the proper size later. Also remember that the finished block size in this case is the unfinished block size for your quilt. You will have to have a seam allowance to sew your blocks together into a quilt. A half inch should provide this necessary allowance.
Blanket Quilt Another way to preserve memories is to make a memory quilt. A memory quilt can be a blanket or a wall hanging. You collect items of clothing as your child outgrows them. You cut the clothes into squares of the same size and save your collection until you have enough to make a blanket or wall-hanging. You can also use pieces of blankets or sheets. Be sure you cut a sample that is not worn thin. On blankets and sheets the outside edges are usually in the best shape. For clothing you would avoid the area covering the knees or the seat of the pants.
If you don't have a sewing machine, you have a lot of work to do. I don't recommend quilting a blanket without a sewing machine if you are looking for a quick easy blanket, even if you are a super fast sewer. If you are really fast at sewing, you probably don't have a desire to sew a quick quilt anyway but are looking for more complicated and challenging projects. If you don't have a sewing machine, you should get one. If you aren't planning on doing any sewing besides this project and don't want to buy an expensive sewing machine, ask a friend if you can borrow theirs.
Decide the amount of usage the baby quilt will receive and how often it will be cleaned or laundered. If the project will be a wall hanging, more intricate patterns could be considered as opposed to a child's personal blanket that will be well-loved.
Because of their smaller size, baby quilts are much easier to make than a normal sized quilt, and can be put together more quickly. Consider using fabric scraps from another project, and simply cut them into blocks, or strips that you can easily match and piece together to produce a beautiful quilt for baby. By using flannel for your batting, the blanket that you quilt will be warm and cozy.
When choosing colors and themes for a baby quilt the sky is the limit. You can go with bold exciting colors, cartoon characters, or you could even call and talk to the parents and find out what color they are planning for the nursery to match your quilt to the theme of the room.
If you can't find a pattern you like already on embroidery file, ask a digitizer to help you create one. A digitizer takes art images like drawings, clip art images and fonts and alters them via computer to become a stitch pattern. So if you'd like for your family tree wall hanging to be quilted with a tree pattern, a digitizer can create one for you.
