Make It More Personal With Custom Blankets
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.
The great value of a template in how to make a quilt is that it allows one to easily make patches identical in size and shape that fit together perfectly. Quilt block templates may be purchased or they can be made. To make a cardboard template the design must be transferred on to paper that has been squared and then with very sharp scissors cut out. The cutout then gets glued onto a piece of cardboard. It is important that a seam allowance be included. The cardboard template should then be cut out and the paper seam allowance protected by covering it with a very thin layer of clear polish or nail varnish. New templates should always be made for each of the project's required shapes.
Quilt Blanket Make pillows. Single blocks are the perfect sice to create toss pillows for your sofa, loveseat or chairs. Make pillow shams for your bed by stitching several together to fit your pillows.
Shirts would lose sleeves, front tabs and buttons; skirts, dresses and jeans would lose waistbands, pockets and zippers BUT you must save the buttons and zippers for another clothing project.
Keepsake Kit and a Blanket A unique baby blanket gift, that will stand the test of time is to add a keepsake with the baby blanket. You can use a baby footprint kit, or a handprint kit, or tins for their first lost tooth or clip of hair from their first haircut. This is made even more special if you have the baby blanket personalized with the baby's name.
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.
Wonderful top quality frames are available to buy, but they are large and costly. So why not make your own? Homemade quilting frames can be made for a fraction of the price and if they are constructed properly, they do the job just as well.
