Have you noticed how many babies are being born right now? So many pregnant women, so many prams. I love it – babies are so adorable!
I am going to two baby showers in as many weeks, and so I took the opportunity to whip up a couple of little quilts.
Lovely Japanese printed linens and cottons from Stitchbird in Kilbirnie.
Penguins, cars, robots and polka dots – I love the bright blues and greys and browns together.
Gorgeous grubby pinks and apple greens for a girl. Little piggies, mice, Alice, and of course, polka dots!
Both of them were pieced really fast – I just sewed the 0.2m cuts together, cut them into strips the other way, mixed up a couple of them and sewed them up. It took about an hour.
Both are backed by a lovely cotton shirting from Global Fabrics. It has a soft, satiny hand that I think babies will love to feel.
For the boy quilt, I quilted it with a simple meandering “stipple.”
For the girl quilt, I did a clematis inspired flower and leaf vine pattern.
Both of these were done entirely freehand. They are much easier to do than it may sound, or look. Quilting free hand is a bit like writing – you have a style and it tends to be consistent – I find that my flowers work out more or less the same size, because I am doing them, if that makes sense!
This is my favourite type of quilting – OK, it’s the only type I do. I’m not that flash at straight lines and I don’t have the patience! I do really believe that you get just as fair a result freehand as if following a pattern.
If your machine will drop its dog feed, or has a plate that fits over the dog feed, you can try this. And if you like the sound of it but would like to come to a fun class, leave me a comment!