Baby Blankets Make Great Baby Shower Gifts

This caused most families to start saving bits and pieces of scrap material. It was not uncommon to see bins of random materials scattered in small piles of the early colonial homes as they hoped to gather enough to eventually construct a quilt.

These quilts are fondly called "Quillows." They are made with an attached pocket which allows the whole blanket to be folded. In this way the "Quillow" can be folded into a cushion during the day and can be unfolded to become a blanket at night.

Blanket Quilt 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.

Have you ever needed to throw together a quick quilt? Many quilting pros laugh at the notion, but sometimes we need a quick gift to give and want to make it personal. Lap quilts and baby quilts are very easy to create on an embroidery machine.

Now it is time to start the actual quilting process. You need a small set of scissors, quilt needles (these have a larger eye but are very sharp in order to go through all the layers), quilting thread, thimble and a very comfortable chair.

Last but not least, the quilt was marked for quilting. This was a very vital part of the quilting process as it would be seen on the top of the quilt as well as it must also be seen on the bottom when you turned down the bed at night. This took quite a bit of time and consideration. You did not want the design of the quilting to take away the look of the quilt but to enhance the beauty of the creation.

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.

Some women used larger scraps, and often the block's strips were a variety of widths. Scrappy strips were asymmetrical and uneven, or pointed, or on the bias. Whatever fabrics were available, they were used as is. There was no time to waste cutting them to size. Women used an old blanket or quilt as the filler and tied the layers together; winter was near -- no time for quilting it.