The Best Blanky To All Your Baby

If the boys are fond of video games, they can choose those with a Star Wars print. They may also have their quilts in checkered designs where the checks are patterned from a chess board or checkers and even monopoly. Or they could simply have prints of their favorite animals.

Simply hoop your top fabric, batting and backing fabric into an embroidery hoop. Pick a design and get to work! Even if you are quilting solid color fabrics, you can complete a quick, beautiful quilt with the embroidery machine in no time!

Another way to make a memory quilt is to use all new fabric with a different approach. You could make each square a representation of some part or event of a child's life. Each square would be embellished by applique, embroidery, scanned pictures, iron-on letters, fabric paint or whatever you like. You could ask important people from the child's life to contribute a square or two and to sign their square with their name.

I scanned the photos and then printed them onto photo transfer sheets. I ironed the transfer on to a piece of white material that was just a little bit larger than the picture. The white square and photo was sewn on top of one of the 12" blue squares. I then added eyelet trim and blue ribbon around each photo. Putting dark blue ribbon on a light blue square, and light blue ribbon on a dark blue square.

Blanket Quilt Comfort Food: Exchange a bite of Mac and Cheese or Beef Stew (ok Bourguignon, you Julie and Julia Fans!) as a promise to nurture one another. Serve it at your reception. Have it on your buffets when you entertain during the fall, or have the annual mac and cheese (or whatever) party once you're married.

A great way to make a memorable quilt baby blanket gift is to get the whole family in on it. Each family member can make a square or two. You can use cloth markers to inscribe special messages from each member. You can choose to have everyone work on the same type of squares or you can have a mix and match baby quilt with a variety of square patterns. Both are lovely.

You can either hand quilt or machine quilt your baby shower gift. Following the perimeter of the shape or you can choose to use a quilter's pencil and template and draw a design and quilt the design. Either way, you will be stitching through all three layers, which not only fasten the layers together, but create a design, as you quilt.

Shortly after her death I came across the quilt that she made for my mother a few years before losing her eyesight. Suddenly it began to dawn upon me. When I looked at the quilt, I did not see a blanket. Instead, I saw a scrapbook made from material. It was as if, by looking at the quilt, I was paging through my family album. I remembered the times when we baked cookies with my mother, the times when my sisters and I played with our tea-set, the first "Superman"-movie I saw with my dad, my first day at school, the visits we had with our grandparents and many other special memories. Each memory was carefully interwoven into this quilt.