Things Child Does Not Require
The best bed you can make for your Retriever inside the house is with a woolen blanket - an old one - and keep its meal and water, close by all the time. If inside the house and sleeping with you in your bedroom, well, you better be prepared to get up twice or thrice to take it outdoors for it to answer nature's call. You will get used to it, and so will your pet! You bet!
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.
Blanket Quilt You can also get ahold of the grandparents to be and see if they have any clothes or blankets saved from the parents' childhood. If they do you could include these fabrics in the quilt for their child making it a multi-generational quilt, which will no doubt be a family heirloom.
In addition to the ten ideas for creating other items from your old or extra pieced blocks, you could consider donating your extras to charity. Local senior centers that offer quilting classes might welcome the gift of some prepared blocks. If you are interested in keeping the money yourself, you can sell your extras. Advertise them in a local paper or in online classifieds. You should also consider an online auction. Try selling them in a yard sale.
There are conflicting opinions about the need to prewash fabric. The choice is yours, but if you have any doubts about colorfastness (whether or not the color will bleed or wash out), test the fabric before adding it to your quilt.
Another way to customize a blanket is by including text in it. This may be a favorite punch line; a line from a song; a secret code between the two of you; a meaningful date; or even a surname.
Double-Sided Bias Tape. You'll use this to make the trim. There are other ways to do it, but this is one of the easiest, and will give your baby quilt a nice, finished look. Try to pick bias tape that compliments the fabric. For example, if your fabric has a pattern, pick one color in the pattern and choose bias tape to match. If you want the bias tape to sort of blend in, try to match the fabric's background color.
