Sunday Quilt Inspiration: Little Ones

You know you're getting close to retiring when former students become co-workers. When they begin having children in multiples, it's so much more fun. For me, it's a reason to continue working. For a little while anyway. I need time to get used to the idea of watching these children grow up on Facebook. So in honor of my "month of many children," let's be inspired by new babies.

So now that you're inspired....baby quilts!

Aren't you inspired? I think I want to start a new quilt for one of those new babies!

Stormy's Anchor ~~ Finish!

Shower Invitation

A coworker is expecting a baby girl in late November. They plan to name her Stormy Rae and her nursery is donned in nautical colors with lots of whales and anchors. Mom is a big fan of anchors.


The baby shower is in a week, so my plans to make a pink quilt with a big navy anchor were demanding my attention. Luckily I had put together a pink tumbler quilt over the summer that still had not been quilted, so it was an easy matter of appliqueing the anchor on and finishing up the quilt. 

Bedding

Wait, who has a huge anchor applique just sitting around? Well, not me, so I actually started by drawing half of an anchor on the newsprint that I keep especially for these kinds of projects. I decided on the size (based on the size of the quilt), folded the paper in half and drew the right half of the anchor starting from the fold and working out. 



Then it was a matter of cutting out the paper pattern so that when I opened it up, voila! a full pattern perfectly matched. I didn't have a big enough piece of navy (that I liked for the anchor) so I chose to cut it in pieces and matching them up as I pressed it to the quilt. Easy method and I was ready for the sewing in no time at all.

My idea was to introduce a bit pink into the room but still coordinate with the nursery. I'm quite pleased with the little quilt. Check out how well it coordinates with the invitation that another friend created – hot pink, polka dots, lime green – are all in both pieces. That's just sheer luck because we were working at the same time and, surprisingly, didn't get to talk about the shower plans. Sometimes great minds do think alike!

To quilt it I used pebbles in the solid pink tumblers and straight line quilting in the prints. Of course I echoed once around the anchor to help it stand out but it's a bit stiff, so I'm hoping that when the quilt gets washed the anchor will soften some.

Finally, I used up some of the last of my pink calicoes for a pieces backing. I'm hoping that these calicoes, which are very soft after washing, will be smooth and comfy for the baby's sensitive skin.

	Quilt Stats
Name:	Stormy’s Anchor
Size:	50” x 50”
Fabrics:	Scrap fabrics – variety of pink prints and Kona light pink solid for top, pink calico for backing
Binding:	Kona light pink
Pattern:	tumbler
Quilting:	Free Motion Quilting – pebbles, straight lines
Completed:	Sept 2016

 Linking up with

Crazy Mom Quilts

My Quilt Infatuation

TGIFF is at Celtic Thistle Stitches 
Em's Scrap Bag 
Fort Worth Fabric Studio 
A Quilting Reader's Garden

Wow, I somehow managed to make it to quite a few linky parties...and I'm having a blast!