What fun I’ve been having sewing with these cute 1930’s reproductions fabrics from Windham called “Sugar Sack II”.  I love these old fashioned fabrics so much and I think they make cute children’s items.  I sewed up a 16-patch checkerboard quilt with them and loved it so much I sewed a matching Cuddle Blankie and a Reading Pillow.  (Patterns for all these items are going to be released after the holidays!)

What’s a Cuddle Blankie?  It’s a much smaller version of the quilt that a baby/toddler can clutch and cuddle with – which is what they love to do.  This one is 16″ x 16″.   And it’s so easy to whip one up to match the baby blanket.

The Reading Pillow is a fun thing to give as a gift for a child – it can hold a couple of books or small toys and is nice for children to curl up with, along with their quilt.  I have gotten so many requests for a pattern for this item, that I am excited about putting it in the shop after Christmas!

I actually doubled the batting on this quilt. I used Warm and White 100% cotton batting.  The double thickness makes the quilt especially warm and snuggly.  I love the weight of it. Because the background fabric I used for the checkerboard design is white, it is important to use a white batting so it doesn’t dull the white fabric.

I machine quilted using a 4 inch stitch length – kind of long, but I love how distinctive it looks.  I used 50mm thread for both the piecing and the quilting.  I switched to a #14 quilting needle to the actual quilting.

The backing fabric is a cute dot fabric from Riley Blake called “Blush Puffs Pink”.

For the binding, I used one of the Sugar Sack fabrics, Pretty Petals in Red.  I thought it gave it a great pop!  I cut 2.5″ strips to make the binding and used this method to machine stitch it.

The quilt measures 31″ x 48″.  The Cuddle Blankie is 16″ x 16″ and the pillow is 18″ x 18″.

This quilt, cuddle blankie and matching pillow are listed in the Shop and are for sale.  Stay tuned for the patterns in January!

Happy Holidays and thanks for stopping by!
Elaine

I’ve just finished a custom order baby quilt and pillow and wanted to share them with you.  I used V & Co’s Ombre Confetti Metallic fabric and it is just so darn cute in a baby quilt.  They came out with quite a few new colors recently and they are so fun to use in sewing. 

I did 16-patch blocks in a checkerboard pattern.  The background fabric is Robert Kaufman Indigo Chambray.  Chambrays are nice fabrics for backgrounds because they have a little more interest to them than solids. 

I used Warm and Natural cotton batting and quilted it on the diagonal, right over all the background squares.  Then I made a bias binding in a Hawthorne Thread fabric called “Artisan Stripe in Gold“.   They have this great stripe in 93 COLORS – do you believe that?  I cut 2.5” strips on the diagonal and made binding from that.  I love the look and the gold binding matches the metallic gold in the confetti fabric so well.  I used my usual machine binding technique.

The backing was a fabric from Art Gallery called “Dream Big” in baby blue.  It has large words that say, “love dream believe repeat” and it makes a great backing fabric.  The finished quilt was 32″x48″. 

The customer also wanted a reading pocket pillow, so I made one.  I plan on a pattern soon in the shop for this.  Stay tuned!

This quilt and pillow are SOLD. 

Thanks for dropping by!
Elaine

I have always loved the whole line of Windham’s Storybook Vacation fabrics – they are just the sweetest vintage looking fabrics.  I got to use them recently on a custom order baby quilt  along with some cute fabrics from Hawthorne Supply Co.

The fabrics I used from Storybook Vacation were “Sailing Dogs in Blue” and “Blue Bubbles”.   The swiss dot fabric that was the “anchor” fabric on the checkerboard is “Essential Dots in Baby Blue” from Moda. I used a cute multicolor dot fabric from Hawthorne Supply Co. called “Multi Dot in Fair Isle Glacier”.  Did you know that Hawthorne has a whole line of fabrics they design in house that are printed digitally?   That means they can print them in a huge array of colors. It’s pretty awesome.  So the Multi Dot fabric comes in many colors.

I also got the binding fabric from Hawthorne  –  it is “Dress Stripe in Nectar”.  Again – this fabric is printed digitally and comes in tons of colors and makes a great binding fabric.  I love diagonal stripes for a baby binding, so I cut 2.5″ bias strips and sewed them together.  It takes a little more fabric to do this, but the effect is so cute.  Here is a tutorial on how to cut your own bias binding that is helpful if you like the diagonal stripes.

For the backing fabric I again selected a fabric from Hawthorne that I thought was so cute –  “Tossed Numbers in Robin’s Egg”.  It is from their “Back to School” line.  It’s a cute tumble of numbers and makes a great backing for a child’s quilt.

The quilt squares are 3″ finished.  I quilted a double set of lines on the quilt using 50# wt Aurifil thread in Natural White.  The batting is White Warm and Natural, which is great when you have white fabrics and you don’t want the batting to dull them down.

When quilting, I switched to a #14 quilting needle and used my walking foot.  I talk about the importance of this in this post – it really makes a difference in preventing skipped stitches and puckers.

My customer also wanted a Reading Pillow, so here is a photo that.

This quilt is sold.

Hope you’re making something – have a great week!

Elaine