For years I have been making baby quilts on commission from my parents for their friends and co-workers. As my father has just retired this last December, the last of the baby quilts for co-workers are a boy and a girl quilt. I had some time on my hands so I made them extra special, just because I could.
I adore this color scheme of grayish blues and greens with a dash of yellow ochre/mustard.
I opted for the ‘trip-around-the-world’ pattern with 2 inch strips. That made all the little squares just 1,5 inches… I had wanted to try the trip around the world block again for a while and I took this chance to have some fun with it.
We looked at various lay-outs and settled on a diagonal composition.
As the fabrics had triangles and stripes on them, I used that as a jumping off point for the quilting pattern.
I quilted it densely, as that is what I love to do. And it will help keep the quilt strong after lots of washings, hopefully.
I used a grey solid for the backing, but I threw in the remnants of the fabrics I had used on the top.
It turned out to be a lovely small quilt.
The very last of these baby quilts was for a little girl called Charlotte. My father was given a card with the announcement of the birth. It had the baby’s name on it in a very 1930’s green with a cute drawing of a small child. It was so cute, that I used the color scheme and the drawing as an inspiration.
I matched the color green in the fabrics and added some fabrics with gold and pink. Again, fabrics with striped and dots mostly. Not very babyish, but cute.
I created lots of Half Square Triangles and played around with them on the floor.
In the end I decided to make the quilt a bit larger and I payed the blocks out like the star/flower shape in the Moda Love pattern that I have used before.
I put a mint fabric in the centre.
I used a pink tread to quilt swirl-flowers with are a go-to pattern for me.
They looked so gorgeous in the evening sun.
As you have probably noticed, I used a short stitch length in the stitch regulator, but that was more of an oversight. I could have gone a bit bigger than this.
In the centre square I had copied the outline of the drawing that was on the card and also the name of the child.
Tracing the drawing was probably more easy than I had thought. I went really slow and used a ruler to slowly push the machine in the right direction.
Writing the name was a lot more difficult than I had thought, though.
Lots of starts and stops, so lots of thread to burry, decidedly not my favorite part of quilting, 😉
The quilt is not perfect, but I was happy with the end result. The new parents were delighted, I was told.
Hope to be blogging and sharing my quilty projects with you more in the upcoming months!
Esther
ipatchandquilt 
Oh my, how sweet it is. Thank you for sharing. It is beautiful, and your close up photos have helped me be able to draw this flower. I will quilt it very soon. Need some practice first. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Sincerely, a new quilter,
Sarah Leigh C.
Hello Sarah!
Oh how wonderful! I would love to see a picture of your swirl-flowers! I always think of them as a swirl with ‘feathers’. The first feather hugs the previous flower and the next feathers move around the outside of the swirl. The length of each feather depends on how much room you have, I like to play with size. If you need more information, please let me know.
Good luck.
Esther
Both really beautiful quilts, not traditional, but gorgeous! I love both the colour schemes and the perfect quilting choices. I’m so glad you’re going to be posting a bit more often, I’ve missed seeing what you’re working on.
Hi Kate,
Blogging has taken a step back a bit and I miss it. I miss going through all of the blogs that I adore. I have had to spend more time on work, which I prefer I didn’t have to. But, I have also spend some weekend in my garden looking after my new plants. I didn’t know that I liked doing that so much, as I have never had a garden for myself. I have put together a veggie plot and am growing lots of flowers. The garden is a bit of a ‘secret garden’, walled in, full of flowers after some tender love and care. There must have been a reason why I loved the book ‘The secret garden’ as a child so much.
Hugs
Esther
Making a garden and making a quilt have much in common. Lots of hard and sometimes boring work at the start, but then it starts to come together, all the colours sing and the whole effect is beautiful AND useful.
You are absolutely right. The colors, the big shapes and the small ones. It really is like making a quilt.
🙂
They are lovely and your working from the announcement card is a stroke of genius. If you’re not careful these parents’ friends will be commissioning similar baby quilts from you too!
Hello Marly,
Thank you for your lovely comment. I have only had one commission from somebody else than my family members, so far. People in general are spooked by the, in their eyes, high prices for the fabrics and labor. Here in the Netherlands, quilting is not well know, so people have no reference.
I don’t mind, as I have plenty of quilt ideas to try out. I am hoping to get back to my large wall hangings and the orange improv quilt soon.
Have a lovely day,
Esther
Your quilts are true art, and I’m sure they’ll be treasured. I really love the one in which you used the announcement style. That was absolutely so clever, and you did such a beautiful job.
Thank you so much Carole for your lovely comment!
Have a great week,
Esther
Beautiful quilts, beautifully quilted. I must have missed your getting a longarm. Or did you always have one? Either way, you’re doing beautiful work! I really like the extra person touches for Charlotte’s quilt.
So-o-o cute! Love quilting. About the name in the centre – probably different font will be easy to stitch. Something like freehand writing.