Months ago, with a brand new nephew and another niece or nephew (we didn't know at the time) on the way, it occurred to me that it might be a good idea to make them some baby blankets. Unfortunately, they were not ready on time for Christmas, but they were ready on time for the baby shower for our second new nephew (he was born just the other day, so we know now - it's a boy!).
I totally cheated on the quilt aspect of this. Instead of actually quilting the layers together, I used strategically placed buttons and sewed them through all three layers, hiding the thread ends inside the quilt. The major downside of this is that I'm not sure how they'll hold up being machine washed. Here's hoping they stay in one piece.
I also made a little name patch for one, and for the other, because we didn't know the gender, I just embroidered a little heart instead of a name. The really special thing about this one was that, though you may not be able to tell from the picture, the fabric I used to make the patch was the white-on-white polka dot fabric I also used in the wedding quilt we made for my sister- and brother-in-law when they got married. I have saved the scraps from that quilt and will continue to use them in little projects for them over the years.
I wish I'd gotten a picture of the entire quilt - the most I got was the half-folded shots. Also, the light in our dining room is terrible, so some of the pictures give it a weird look. The fabrics I used were pastel orange and green. The fun thing is, these little nephews now have nearly-identical (apart from the name patch and the individual buttons) baby quilts!
Special thanks to my husband for cutting out all the fabric for the second quilt and for running up to JoAnn to pick up more bias tape when I ran out. I would have been so screwed for time on this!
Because I made up the pattern myself (leave me a message if you'd like a copy of the pattern!), I was a little disorganized when it came to shopping for materials. The great news was that I got some glorious batting (Warm & Natural) at JoAnn for half price, so definitely use a coupon or wait for a sale so you can get the really scrumptious batting. It was delightful to work with and was warm without being too puffy. I ended up using about twice as much yellow as green, but that was by design, as the store had less green in stock the day I bought fabric. I am totally blanking on how much fabric I used, especially because I changed the size of the quilt at the last minute to make it a bit smaller. My original pattern that I designed called for something like 45" x 60", which I quickly realized was totally absurd for an infant. In terms of other materials, I needed 2 spools of pastel yellow thread, a skein of embroidery floss for the patches, like a gazillion (ok, 4-5) packs of coordinating double-fold bias tape and a small jar of white buttons.
In the end, because it's not a precise pattern and you kind of have to adapt it to your purposes, I'd budget 10-15 hours of work for each quilt (much more if you're going to make one for grown-ups, due to the extra fabric-cutting and button-sewing!). The bulk of that time was, for me, spent cutting fabric out and doing those damn buttons! They look super cute, but I nearly drove myself crazy getting them securely sewed on! I was literally embroidering the heart patch on the way to New Jersey for the baby shower. Totally worth it, though.
They made a great gift and were very well received by both my sisters-in-law. I hope that many family babies will get to sleep under these quilts over the years!
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