Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Ultimate Baby Quilt



In Fall of '05 I was visiting Mom in CA and browsing through her Sew Beautiful magazines when I found a picture of the most beautiful baby quilt ever!! It is made as almost a sampler of heirloom sewing techniques, all of which I'm dying to learn.

Of course I fell in love and made plans to sew the quilt even though Blake was a year and a half old and I didn't know when I'd have another baby. I soon convinced Krista to make the quilt as well and we bought all the supplies to make the quilt in yellow, only to put it all away for years!

So when I got pregnant this last time, I said I would make the quilt for this baby's first birthday. Now I've bought some blue fabric and am finally ready to start the most intimidating project I think I've ever tried on my own.

And now we come to today: I began the first block. Woo hoo!! It's the second one from the left on the top row. It includes this "fancy band," which is just a bunch of laces and embroideries joined together in a strip with a zig zag stitch. The middle is an embroidered insertion and on either side is lace beading (later I'll thread ribbon through this) and an English lace. I looked all over the internet and couldn't find more boy-ish laces, but I think I'll back this block in blue so it's a bit more masculine.

I ran into problems using the heirloom quality thread on my machine...which really annoyed me. For a machine that expensive, I thought it would work fine, but apparently expensive machines are picky. I think it's a tension thing, so I'm going to call the store for advice tomorrow. Otherwise, it came together pretty easily. I'm about half-way done with the block and hope to finish tomorrow.

5 comments:

Erica said...

That's such a freakin' awesome quilt. And such a good blog idea!

Dan said...

you are one very busy lady. great new blog and great new idea. it really like it and think you are so talented.

Laura Lee said...

It will be a beautiful heirloom quilt. Too bad the thread isn't working, but maybe someone at the Bernina dealer will have a good suggestion. I'm hoping it is just a matter of adjusting something. :) I'm thinking positively.

Krista said...

Oh man, you're telling me you started? Crap...that means I have to start, too. Alright...where did you find your lace?

Melanie said...

I just ordered it from Martha Pullen. She's the cheapest. I think it was less than $15. I've got some blue fabric for you too. I'll have to slip it in the mail.