The Start of a Baby Quilt

My sister doesn't read my blog, so I can freely show pictures of my progress on her baby girl's quilt.

I prayed for inspiration, for a quilt theme that would mean a lot to my sister.  She miscarried her first baby, and a few months later was in St. Thomas visiting a friend, when they saw this plaque in a little shop.

"If I ever have another baby," she told her friend tearfully, "I want this to be in my nursery."

Her friend remembered, and sent her the plaque as a gift to open at the Gender Reveal Party.

I had forgotten about that plaque until shopping in Joann's. A quilt magazine (Better Homes) featured this small wall-hanging called "Feathered Friends."  Voila! Thank you, Lord! With a few tweaks, I would enlarge this pattern to a crib size quilt.

(Sounds easy enough, doesn't it? Ha!  I never cease to amaze myself with my ability to believe illusions.)

Step one: Change the colors to suit her baby's rooms (greens, pinks, cream, and brown). Choose bright batiks for the birds and beaks. 

Trace 137   patterns for leaves, flowers, birds, and beaks onto freezer paper.  

Label them all. 

Press them, shiny side of paper down, onto wrong side of fabric.

Spray some starch into a dish (the daisy plate is from Goodwill, $1.50,  to match my new craft room which I have yet to completely photograph, let alone blog about. It's coming folks, I promise!)

Cut out the applique.

Take a Q-tip, dip it in starch, rub starch onto the edge of fabric, 

then press it down carefully with a hot, dry iron.

 Repeat this process for each applique

until you want to declare this is last time you'll ever do an applique' quilt.

Instead you persevere, saying,  "She's worth it.  My sister is worth it. My niece is worth it." :)

Can I show you my handy-dandy ironing board?

I can stay seated in my comfy chair while doing the undesirable job of pressing.   

My daughter's old Ikea night tables slide under my sewing table when not being used... 

and slide out when I need extra surface area. I cover one with thick fabric for padding when I iron.



Here are some leaves and strips already pressed and ready for the next step.

                                             The birds are bright and make me smile, but  I think I have to redo the red guy. My cutting wasn't precise and I tried to remedy it with the iron.   (FAIL.  I mean, LEARNING EXPERIENCE.)

                                                   In the middle of things, I decided to teach my son to make
a pincushion.  I needed one and he needed diversion from video games. Win-win.  He loved "driving" the machine and was pretty proud of his project.

Band-aid needed. Guess why? :(

 Perhaps with his mad piecing skills he will help me finish the baby quilt by July 20th, or August 10th, or before the wee child is born.