A group quilt

Today I want to share a group quilt we made for our first “Modern Quilt Guild Bielefeld Baby”.

We knew that our guild member and New-Mom-to-be  was expecting a girl but does not like too much pink and rose. So we picked a grey background and decided on wonky star blocks. Each of us made 2 or three blocks and I volunteered to put the quilt top together and baste, quilt and bind the quilt.

Here’s our baby girl quilt for little Leona:

I used a variegated red-pink Aurifil to free motion quilt stars and loops…

…and outlined the stars using a white Aurifil thread.

All stars are scrappy and some are multi-coloured and others are monochromatic.

I found a fabric with little stars in colourful circles for the backing and used a multi-colour-striped fabric for the binding.

Below you can see the baby’s name quilted in the top left corner for some extra little individuality.

During our last sew-in the little baby came along for the first time. Below you can see a snap shot of her on Brigitte’s arm with her new quilt. She was such a cute addition to our party. Napping in her pram or being carried around by other quilt members.

You are most welcome to cheer us up with your little smiles and “uh-ohs” and we hope to see you again soon, little Leona!

So this was a long kept secret (we started sewing in October, I think) and I am glad I was able to finish the quilt just in time for her first visit.

Do you have a go-to baby-quilt pattern? I have to start another baby quilt soon, so if you know a good pattern, I’d love to read your advice!

Happy (secret) sewing!
Christine

Paper Lanterns – a baby girl quilt

The wife of my former workmate gave birth to their first child last week. A sweet little girl.

May there always be lights (and lanterns) to light your way, little Johanna!

Raw edge appliqué and free motion quilted black wires.

Double loops as background quilting…

I quilted the baby’s name in the lower right corner.

I used different designs within the lanterns.

Backing and binding. And my new name tag including washing instructions.

I am rather pleased with the result. A not too girly baby quilt. The process gave me some pains though. I had huge problems with tension and breaking threads. It was the first time I encountered these problems with my sewing machine. After changing needles twice, cleaning my machine, rethreading multiple times the problem was still the same. I was so disappointed and frustrated.

Ironically, my machine worked perfectly when I quilted on a test-sandwich. Eventually I came to the conclusion that I had put the wrong side of the batting up. Trudi explained last year that, when using needle punched batting, the side with the little knots aught to face downwards. Mine faced upwards. I need to remember this when basting my next quilt!

What do you do when you encounter thread breaks?!

Happy Quilting!
Christine