Let's Make Baby Quilts! {3/21/14}

Let's start with the happy stuff.

Audrey from Glory Be Quilter has finished seven baby quilts so far this year, and they're all adorable. I love, love, love this panel of smiling animal faces!

Janet from Simply Pieced has been making gorgeous baby quilts. Make sure you visit her post to see the great texture the quilting adds and the back, which looks just as impressive as the front! And she did a pair of quilts for twins that are equally wonderful. 

I've been putting off this part and hoping that I wouldn't have to write it at all but, after this week, I feel like it's time to explain why I've only finished one baby quilt and two tops in the past three months.

The goal I announced when I started the Let's Make Baby Quilts linky party last year was to make 50 baby quilts in 2013. I managed to finish twenty-nine and was sure I'd do better this year. Fifty is an achievable goal. (In 2010, I made forty-seven little quilts before the wonderful group I'd been making them for disbanded and I ran out of steam.) I know I'll have another fifty quilt year, but it's not going to be 2014.

At the beginning of December, my husband was in a head on collision with a drunk driver. You can see what it did to our SUV in this post. We're lucky he's alive. I didn't write about his injuries here, because that's not my story to tell, but we got MRI results this week and it's bad news, worse than the scariest worst-case scenario that the orthopedist had prepared us for.

I don't really know what else to say, except that I've been completely rattled by this whole thing and it sounds like the worst is still to come. We're as okay as we can be given the circumstances.

A break from blogging doesn't make sense at this point, because I don't know what's happening from day to day. I still wind up with time to quilt and write, but it's going to be less and less predictable. And since I really need to use it for stress relief right now, I'm going to completely drop the one-baby-quilt-a-week goal for the moment and just work on whatever seems like a good idea that particular day. Half inch finished squares are an amazing distraction and so is free motion quilting.

Please stick with me, even though I don't have many new baby quilts of my own to share right now.  The Let's Make Baby linky party will continue to go live every Friday at 4am Pacific Time, even if it's just the linky without any original content. I'll continue to feature my favorite baby quilts from each week and links to baby quilt tutorials. I have plans for new tutorials of my own and will add them to the blog as I get them written. When I find free patterns and tutorials online, I add them to the Let's Make Baby Quilts page over on Facebook and my Baby Quilt Tutorials board on Pinterest. (If anyone is interested in doing a guest post about what inspires their baby quilts, or wants to promote patterns for baby quilts, or something else that ties in with the theme, please send me an email!)

Let's Make Baby Quilts Linky Party Rules: 

Link directly to your post or specific Flickr photo. Your post can be about a baby quilt that's finished, or in progress, or you can be writing about what you have planned, but it's got to be about baby quilts. While we're still gathering steam, you're welcome to link to baby quilt posts that aren't brand new, but please don't submit the same post or picture more than once. I'd love it if you linked back to my site, either with a text link or the Let's Make Baby Quilts! button

Let's Make Baby Quilts in 2015!

I love making baby quilts. They're instant gratification. They're great for using scraps and playing with new blocks or color schemes. In 2013, I started the Let's Make Baby Quilts linky party, hoping to motivate other quilters to join me in making and donating baby quilts. The quilts can be for donation, or for your own baby, or for a relative or friend's baby....I'm just trying to encourage other quilters to have fun making little quilts.

So far, the tutorials are Benny, Priscilla, Peter, Colleena, Laura, Sadie, Carrie, Buzz, Helen, Christopher, Sam,  Marilyn, and Butterfly.

On Fridays I host a linky party where you can link to what you've finished, or what you're working on, or what you've got planned. There's a Let's Make Baby Quilts Facebook page,  and a Pinterest board where I add whatever cute baby quilt tutorials I stumble upon.

2014 was a rough year for me and mine and I only managed a handful of baby quilts and two new tutorials. But things are looking better. Care to join me in 2015?

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Let's Make Baby Quilts Linky Party Rules: 
Link directly to your post or specific Flickr photo. Your post can be about a baby quilt that's finished, or in progress, or you can be writing about what you have planned,  as long as it's about baby quilts. You're welcome to link to baby quilt posts that aren't brand new, but please don't submit the same post or picture more than once. I'd love it if you linked back to my site, either with a text link or the Let's Make Baby Quilts! button.

Let's Make Baby Quilts! {week 4}

How are your baby quilts coming along? I took all of the bright squares that were left after I sorted out the florals to make Sara and made Steve. Now I need to get moving and cut a bunch more squares for the next one.

 

I've got a giveaway for you this week! The nice folks at Purex Insiders sent me a bottle of Purex Baby to try out, along with some coupons to pass along to my readers.  

 

 

 

I always wash my baby quilts before donating them or giving them to friends and family. I assume that they'll be washed again before they come into contact with baby, but I want to make sure they're as clean as they can be before leaving my house.

 

Because I've got a history of awful skin problems, our usual detergent is pretty gentle. I'm very picky about what I wash my own clothes in, let alone the baby quilts. Purex baby is is hypoallergenic, dermatologist-tested and formulated to be extra gentle on baby's skin. Which I assume means it's safe for me, too!  It has a light, pleasant scent. And it's designed to work in HE machines as well as my beloved old top-loader.

Do you wash your baby quilts before sending them off? What other steps do you go through -- checking for loose threads? Stray pins? A cheerio that accidentally got quilted between the fabric and batting? (Yes, that actually did happen at my house, to a baby quilt I was making for my sister's newborn. I cut through the top layer to get it out, then appliqued a heart over the hole.)

Let's Make Baby Quilts Linky Party Rules:

I don't want to overwhelm everyone with a huge list of rules, but I do want this linky party to stay on the topic of baby quilts. They can be for donation, or for your own baby, or just because you think they're cute and want them in your sewing room, but they've got to be baby quilts. Link directly to your post or specific Flickr photo. Your post can be about a quilt that's finished, or in progress, or you can be writing about what you have planned, but it's got to be about baby quilts. While we're still gathering steam, you're welcome to link to baby quilt related posts that aren't brand new, but please don't submit the same post more than once. I'd love it if you linked back to my site, either with a text link or the Let's Make Baby Quilts! button.

I'll give two coupons to quilters who link up their baby quilts, and one to a commenter. And if you're in a contest-entering mood, Purex is holding a sweepstakes with three $500 winners and free baby detergent to 250 winners.

Let's Make Baby Quilts! 1/4/13

My goal is to make at least fifty baby quilts this year and I seem to be getting off to a good start.

Meet Benny:

And Lucas:

I thought about pacing myself and saving some blocks for next week's quilt, but I decided that I might as well finish them while I've got the chance. There are going to be weeks that I can't finish a quilt, especially since one of my biggest goals is not to let this crazy goal of mine inconvenience the rest of my family too much.

 Want to join me? You don't have to set such a ridiculous goal -- you could do one a month, or one a season, or just one.

The quilts can be for donation, or for your own baby, or for a relative or friend's baby....I'm just trying to encourage you to have fun making little quilts. I'll be posting tutorials for the baby quilts I've created myself, and links to the patterns I've discovered online. And we'll have a linky party every Friday.

Someone asked if I'd be creating a Flickr pool. I don't use Flickr much myself, but I created a group for us, Let's Make Baby Quilts! Got some pictures you can add so I won't be all alone there? Please? 

Let's Make Baby Quilts Linky Party Rules:

I don't want to overwhelm everyone with a huge list of rules, but I do want this linky party to stay on the topic of baby quilts. They can be for donation, or for your own baby, or just because you think they're cute and want them in your sewing room, but they've got to be baby quilts. Link link directly to your post or specific Flickr photos.  Your post can be about a quilt that's finished, or in progress, or you can be writing about what you have planned, but it's got to be about baby quilts. While we're still gathering steam, you're welcome to link to baby quilt related posts that aren't brand new, but please don't submit the same post more than once. I'd love it if you linked my site, either with a text link or the Let's Make Baby Quilts! button

Let's Make Baby Quilts! {week 47}

As part of the Quilter's Gallery blog hop, I'm giving away a copy of Quilt It with Love: The Project Linus Story: 20+ Quilt Patterns & Stories to Warm Your Heart. My youngest two sons both spent time in the NICU and each of them was given a quilt. I still can't explain how those quilts made me feel -- but they're why I make baby quilts now. They letters in this book from quilt recipients are just amazing. If you ever want some inspiration to keep making charity quilts, this is where to look.  If you want to enter the giveaway, leave a comment on yesterday's post.


Has anyone else noticed that we're quickly running out of year? Instead of making myself crazy trying to meet my goal of fifty baby quilts, I'm going to just do what I can and try it again in 2014. I know I can do it. I've done it in previous years. This year, I've had less time.

I've set up a Let's Make Baby Quilts Facebook page. I'm better at making baby quilts than navigating Facebook, but I'm hoping this might make it easier to share news with you. Everything on the blog will stay the same, but I'll post links over there when I add new baby quilt tutorials.

Let's Make Baby Quilts Linky Party Rules:

Link directly to your post or specific Flickr photo. Your post can be about a baby quilt that's finished, or in progress, or you can be writing about what you have planned, but it's got to be about baby quilts. While we're still gathering steam, you're welcome to link to baby quilt posts that aren't brand new, but please don't submit the same post or picture more than once. I'd love it if you linked back to my site, either with a text link or the Let's Make Baby Quilts! button

By linking up, you're giving me permission to feature your quilt in a future Let's Make Baby Quilts! post -- with a link back and full credit, of course.

Let's Make Baby Quilts {week 8}

How are your baby quilts coming? I didn't finish one this week, which has me reminding myself that my goal is fifty quilts for the year, not one every single week. Sooner or later, I'll free up some time for another of my baby quilt binges and I'll be ahead of schedule again.


I was sure I'd have this quilt done with plenty of time to spare. I cut the green squares and triangles last week when I was cutting pieces for the border of the turtle quilt.

That's one of my tricks for the controlled scrappy baby quilts -- I cut fabric for them when I'm cutting my own quilts. The turtle quilt has a limited number of greens and I'm being extra choosy about which ones make it in. This little quilt is more "anything goes as long as it's green!"

When I start the big girl version of Annabelle that Teenage Daughter wants, I'll also be cutting pieces for a rail fence baby quilt.  Then, when I've got time to sit down and do some piecing, I'll have projects ready to go.

Let's Make Baby Quilts Linky Party Rules:

I don't want to overwhelm everyone with a huge list of rules, but I do want this linky party to stay on the topic of baby quilts. They can be for donation, or for your own baby, or just because you think they're cute and want them in your sewing room, but they've got to be baby quilts. Link directly to your post or specific Flickr photo. Your post can be about a quilt that's finished, or in progress, or you can be writing about what you have planned, but it's got to be about baby quilts. While we're still gathering steam, you're welcome to link to baby quilt related posts that aren't brand new, but please don't submit the same post more than once. I'd love it if you linked back to my site, either with a text link or the Let's Make Baby Quilts! button.

Let's Make Baby Quilts! {week 38}

Except for a couple of organizations that have really tugged at my heartstrings, I try to give most of my baby quilts locally. My theory is that whatever money I'd be spending on postage is better spent on batting and thread.

Since the organization that I was making baby quilt for when I started this project disbanded, I've been looking for other alternatives. Some have felt better than others and I have to remind myself that, as long as the quilts are getting to mommies and their babies, it doesn't matter if the receptionist at the pregnancy center doesn't seem like she wants to be bothered. And parking for the NICU is manageable, as much as that place gives me the heebie jeebies.

This week,  I took a stack of quilts to the local birthing center.  I'd met the daughter of the owner down at the river a few weeks ago and she was sure that they'd be happy to pass along quilts to their new mothers.  It took me a while to work up the nerve to call them, but I'm so glad I did. I was able to take in a dozen quilts, which will keep them stocked through the first of the year, and I got a tour of the birthing center.

Finding local places to donate the baby quilts has been a bit of a challenge, but it was definitely worth it.

Where do you donate your baby quilts, if that's what you do with them?

Let's Make Baby Quilts Linky Party Rules:
Link directly to your post or specific Flickr photo. Your post can be about a baby quilt that's finished, or in progress, or you can be writing about what you have planned, but it's got to be about baby quilts. While we're still gathering steam, you're welcome to link to baby quilt posts that aren't brand new, but please don't submit the same post or picture more than once. I'd love it if you linked back to my site, either with a text link or the Let's Make Baby Quilts! button.

Let's Make Baby Quilts {8/15/14}

A couple of weeks ago, Pam from Pam's Quilt Spot joined the linky party with a post about a Charity Sew Day. I'm just blown away by how many quilts these gals managed to finish. Go watch the slideshow -- it looks like they're having an absolute blast! 

Pam was kind enough to share more details and pictures of the finished quilts, so I'll turn this post over to her.... 

Hi – I’m Pam.  I’ve been asked to share a story of a great group of women who sewed baby quilts for a great cause.  We all get together to share our lives and our arts and our passions and big laughs!  One of the local quilt guilds makes quilts for the NICU unit for Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Hospital.  Not too long ago, there was an emergency request for the quilts.  With that, a sew day was put together to make quilts and get them to the babies.

To give credit to the groups, we had ladies from the Little Women’s that gets together at Jo Jo’s Quilt Shop in Chesterfield, VA and Happy Quilters of Chesterfield who sew at local libraries and a local church.  We came together to sew and we used mostly patterns Michelle was kind enough to share with the world.  We trimmed down the instructions to fit on one page so we didn’t have too many pieces of paper to print out!  We did a little preparation coming to our sew day for the baby quilts with about 15 kits cut, marked and ready to sew!  We had a pressing station, cutting station and an extra sewing machine so people could sew without toting their machine around.

Anne, Carol, Kathy, Lori, Mary, Pat and Vicki joined me to sew one Saturday at a Masonic lodge. We made 10 quilts and had a couple of more in progress.  Four were quilted that day.  Charlotte and Linda couldn’t make it that day but brought quilts to one of the groups to add to the pile.  We actually have 10 more ready to quilt and several more in the works.

We sewed and sewed.  Troy, my DH, smoked up pork tenderloin and we all brought some sides to go with it.  Nobody went hungry.  Of course, there was chocolate and music!  We had a great time and we have another day planned for October!

A huge thank you to Michelle for sharing her patterns with the world!  The patterns are so easy to make and everyone loves them.  If you haven’t tried any of them, you should!  But beware!  They are addictive and so much fun to see them in different materials.

Let's Make Baby Quilts Linky Party Rules: 
Link directly to your post or specific Flickr photo. Your post can be about a baby quilt that's finished, or in progress, or you can be writing about what you have planned,  as long as it's about baby quilts. You're welcome to link to baby quilt posts that aren't brand new, but please don't submit the same post or picture more than once. I'd love it if you linked back to my site, either with a text link or the Let's Make Baby Quilts! button.

{Let's Make Baby Quilts!} 4/11/14

Do you have groups of fabric set aside for baby quilts? A few years back, I was sorting through my scrap bags and pulled together the fabrics that finally became the pink bird quilt and this week's new quilt top.  I think the idea was that they'd go together quickly next time I planned a baby quilt binge and tried to do ten quilts in ten days or something else equally silly, but it's been a long time since I managed one of those. The bags with the fabric got buried and forgotten until I unearthed them again while cleaning. And that's okay, because at this point in time a couple of kitted up baby quilts were exactly what I needed. 

This one is very loosely based on the Flexi Strip Baby Quilt tutorial that I linked to last week. I knew that I was going to use every last bit of that animal print and I didn't want to cut it into narrower strips and lose any of the critters, so I squared up the piece I had and built the rest of the quilt around it.

Looking back, I can see about a dozen different ways I could have done this and I might wish I'd chosen one of the different options, but I'm going to quilt it and bind it and give it away and not fuss over what might have been. It's cute this way. And one of the things I love about the baby quilts is that I don't have to obsess over every last decision because the quilts aren't going to live with me.

There are a lot of the solids left over and they just happen to go nicely with a backing fabric I've got in my stash, so now I know what my next baby quilt is going to be. Don't you just love watching the possibilities open up as you finish projects and figure out what's left to work with?

Let's Make Baby Quilts Linky Party Rules:
Link directly to your post or specific Flickr photo. Your post can be about a baby quilt that's finished, or in progress, or you can be writing about what you have planned, as long as it's about baby quilts. You're welcome to link to baby quilt posts that aren't brand new, but please don't submit the same post or picture more than once. I'd love it if you linked back to my site, either with a text link or the Let's Make Baby Quilts! button.

Let's Make Baby Quilts! {week 5}

How are your baby quilts coming?

Last week, I played with some low volume scraps and made Annabelle. She's just a little postage stamp quilt made up from 2 1/2" squares, but she was a lot of fun to put together.  I want to do more baby quilts with these colors, but I should probably cut the pieces for my daughter's quilt first.

 

This week, I'm pulling out a bunch of pink 2 1/2" strips and hoping to make another quilt like the Scrappy Blue Pinwheels I made back in November. I'll take pictures so I can write up the tutorial.

The winners from last week's Purex Baby giveaway are Mareenchen from Aquamareen Crafting, Deb from asimplelifequilts, and Lori. I'll be writing to each of you for your mailing address.



Let's Make Baby Quilts Linky Party Rules:

I don't want to overwhelm everyone with a huge list of rules, but I do want this linky party to stay on the topic of baby quilts. They can be for donation, or for your own baby, or just because you think they're cute and want them in your sewing room, but they've got to be baby quilts. Link directly to your post or specific Flickr photo. Your post can be about a quilt that's finished, or in progress, or you can be writing about what you have planned, but it's got to be about baby quilts. While we're still gathering steam, you're welcome to link to baby quilt related posts that aren't brand new, but please don't submit the same post more than once. I'd love it if you linked back to my site, either with a text link or the Let's Make Baby Quilts! button.

Let's Make Baby Quilts! {week 24}

I've got a new tutorial for you this week, Carrie. 

 

Checkerboard baby quilts go together quickly, especially if you've got width of fabric strips to start with, and using eight different prints that are all the same color means you don't have to fuss much about color placement.

Looking for more free baby quilt patterns? You can find all of the Let's Make Baby Quilts tutorials over in the side bar, and more ideas for baby quilts on my baby quilt tutorials board over at Pinterest.

Have you seen Cheryl Lynch's collaborative baby quilt? She prepared fusible fish parts (bodies, fins, lips, eyes) and had each at the baby shower create a block that will go into the finished quilt. I absolutely love the idea.

 

 

Let's Make Baby Quilts Linky Party Rules:

Link directly to your post or specific Flickr photo. Your post can be about a baby quilt that's finished, or in progress, or you can be writing about what you have planned, but it's got to be about baby quilts. While we're still gathering steam, you're welcome to link to baby quilt posts that aren't brand new, but please don't submit the same post or picture more than once. I'd love it if you linked back to my site, either with a text link or the Let's Make Baby Quilts! button.

Let's Make Baby Quilts! {week 6}

Do you use triangles in your baby quilts? Just a few of them can add a lot of zing without too much extra effort.

If you make snowball blocks, you don't even have to deal with actual triangles -- you stitch and flip and get the look of triangles without the fuss.



Or you can go all out and throw caution to the wind -- this baby quilt has lot of little triangles and lots of big triangles made up of little triangles. I've made two almost identical quilts. Extra Scrappy Pinwheels is a free pattern here on my blog.

Let's Make Baby Quilts Linky Party Rules:

I don't want to overwhelm everyone with a huge list of rules, but I do want this linky party to stay on the topic of baby quilts. They can be for donation, or for your own baby, or just because you think they're cute and want them in your sewing room, but they've got to be baby quilts. Link directly to your post or specific Flickr photo. Your post can be about a quilt that's finished, or in progress, or you can be writing about what you have planned, but it's got to be about baby quilts. While we're still gathering steam, you're welcome to link to baby quilt related posts that aren't brand new, but please don't submit the same post more than once. I'd love it if you linked back to my site, either with a text link or the Let's Make Baby Quilts! button.

Let's Make Baby Quilts! {1/3/14}

Are you making baby quilts with me again this year? What's on your personal "I've got to make this NOW" list?

I've got a whole list of patterns I want to try, including this giant starflower block that My Quilting Addiction shared with us last week. (Follow the link -- her quilting and fabric choices are just amazing.)

I'm mentally pulling fabrics for a Gingham Dog Baby Quilt from Moda Lissa and the Star Dresden from Snips Snippets.

As I find new tutorials and patterns online, I've been linking them to the Let's Make Baby Quilts! Facebook page and the Pinterest board, and I'll mention them here on Fridays. I've also got a bunch of my own tutorials planned for you, just as soon as I can carve our a little more time to finish the quilts.

Let's Make Baby Quilts Linky Party Rules:

Link directly to your post or specific Flickr photo. Your post can be about a baby quilt that's finished, or in progress, or you can be writing about what you have planned, but it's got to be about baby quilts. While we're still gathering steam, you're welcome to link to baby quilt posts that aren't brand new, but please don't submit the same post or picture more than once. I'd love it if you linked back to my site, either with a text link or the Let's Make Baby Quilts! button

By linking up, you're giving me permission to feature your quilt in a future Let's Make Baby Quilts! post -- with a link back and full credit, of course.

Blog Hop Party

It's time for another Blog Hop Party With Giveaways, sponsored by the Quilting Gallery.  I love these events -- it's so much fun to explore new blogs, and if I win something, that's an extra bonus!


If you haven't been here before, I'm Michelle and my project for the last three or four years has been making baby quilts for local pregnancy centers. After making twenty quilts for my own family of six in one year, I had to do something different! Twenty quilts we can use, but multiply that by years and years...

I love making baby quilts. They're instant gratification. They're great for using up scraps and playing with new blocks or color schemes or quilting techniques. This year, I decided that it would me more fun if I had other quilters to make the baby quilts with, so I started Let's Make Baby Quilts.  Every Friday I host a linky party to share our progress and finishes. I also share tutorials for easy baby quilts. You can find a list of those over in the sidebar.



I'm giving away a copy of Quilt It with Love: The Project Linus Story: 20+ Quilt Patterns & Stories to Warm Your Heart. To enter, just leave a comment below letting me know who you make baby quilts for. I'd love it if you followed my blog or liked the new Let's Make Baby Quilts page on Facebook.

On November 27, I'll use the random number generator to choose a winner. (And yes, I will ship internationally.)

Let's Make Baby Quilts! {6/5/15}

Look - I made a baby quilt this week! This is Johnny and you and you can find all of the details in this post.

One of the things I wonder about when I'm making the baby quilts are "appropriate colors." What does that even mean? Some moms don't like pale colors that will show stains. Experts claim that bright primary colors are best for baby's developing eyes....or maybe that was a company trying to pitch their particular line of toys.

When I asked at the pregnancy center, the lady in charge told me that the moms-to-be choose their own quilts and some are thrilled with what she thought were the ugliest quilts imaginable because they were in their favorite colors. So, who knows!

What colors do you use in your baby quilts? Do you limit yourself to juvenile prints? Solids? Whatever you've got on hand?

Let's Make Baby Quilts Linky Party Rules: 
Link directly to your post or specific Flickr photo. Your post can be about a baby quilt that's finished, or in progress, or you can be writing about what you have planned,  as long as it's about baby quilts. You're welcome to link to baby quilt posts that aren't brand new, but please don't submit the same post or picture more than once. I'd love it if you linked back to my site, either with a text link or the Let's Make Baby Quilts! button.

Let's Make Baby Quilts! {2/21/14}

Get any baby quilts finished this week? Heather from Peachy Pages took a stack of old heart blocks and turned them into FOUR adorable baby quilts! 

I had planned to get some unfinished baby quilts pin basted, but this cold has really knocked me out. Earlier in the week, I did make a scaled down version of Marilyn to keep for myself. Not a baby quilt, but it shows you what it'll look like if you change the color placement on the nine-patch blocks.

Let's Make Baby Quilts Linky Party Rules: 

Link directly to your post or specific Flickr photo. Your post can be about a baby quilt that's finished, or in progress, or you can be writing about what you have planned, but it's got to be about baby quilts. While we're still gathering steam, you're welcome to link to baby quilt posts that aren't brand new, but please don't submit the same post or picture more than once. I'd love it if you linked back to my site, either with a text link or the Let's Make Baby Quilts! button

Let's Make Baby Quilts {week 50}

Thanks to  everyone who shared your baby quilts last week. Celine at Accroquilt shared the most adorable appliqued hearts.  I love embroidery, and that yellow background on Jessica's nine patch baby quilt.  Isn't that just the perfect bit of cheerful sunshine for a new mom? 

Please keep sharing your baby quilts -- it helps keep the rest of us motivated!

Let's Make Baby Quilts Linky Party Rules:

Link directly to your post or specific Flickr photo. Your post can be about a baby quilt that's finished, or in progress, or you can be writing about what you have planned, as long as it's about baby quilts. You're welcome to link to posts that aren't brand new, but please don't submit the same post or picture more than once. I'd love it if you linked back to my site, either with a text link or the Let's Make Baby Quilts! button

By linking up, you're giving me permission to feature your quilt in a future Let's Make Baby Quilts! post -- with a link back and full credit, of course.

Let's Make Baby Quilts! {week 3}

How are your baby quilts coming? Have you chosen a pattern? Cut some fabric?

 

It's been a busy week here -- I just barely managed to finish Emily. I might've gotten just a little bit carried away with my free motion quilting...

 

Let's Make Baby Quilts Linky Party Rules:

I don't want to overwhelm everyone with a huge list of rules, but I do want this linky party to stay on the topic of baby quilts. They can be for donation, or for your own baby, or just because you think they're cute and want them in your sewing room, but they've got to be baby quilts. Link directly to your post or specific Flickr photo. Your post can be about a quilt that's finished, or in progress, or you can be writing about what you have planned, but it's got to be about baby quilts. While we're still gathering steam, you're welcome to link to baby quilt related posts that aren't brand new, but please don't submit the same post more than once. I'd love it if you linked my site, either with a text link or the Let's Make Baby Quilts! button

Let's make some baby quilts!

 

I love making baby quilts. They're instant gratification. They're great for using scraps and playing with new blocks or color schemes.

My plan for 2013 is to make at least fifty baby quilts.  Want to join me?  You don't have to set such a ridiculous goal -- you could do one a month, or one a season, or just one.

The quilts can be for donation, or for your own baby, or for a relative or friend's baby....I'm just trying to encourage you to have fun making little quilts.


I'll be posting tutorials for the baby quilts I've created myself, and links to the patterns I've discovered online. On Fridays we'll have a linky party and you can link to what you've finished, or what you're working on, or what you've got planned.

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Care to join me?

<center><a href="http://mychellem.blogspot.com" target="_blank"><img alt="Let's Make Baby Quilts!" src="http://i1306.photobucket.com/albums/s578/romantictangle/Collages1_zpsd9df24b7.jpg"/></a></center>

time to make some baby quilts

When I first saw a post about 100 Quilts for Kids, I thought it sounded like an absolute blast and that I'd make up a batch of baby quilts. Because last year, I was making up baby quilts to donate in batches of ten or twelve at a time.

I've got to remember that this isn't last year. Two days before it's time to start donating, and I haven't made a single one. The two tops I just finished aren't baby quilts. They could be...I'd wrap them around my babies, if I had any little enough...but they're not what I had in mind when I decided to do this. I want something bright and cute. Something new. Using the baby quilts that have been hanging in the dining room since before my knee surgery would be cheating. The idea (for me) is to make new quilts.

And I don't know what I want to make. So I pulled out the photo album I started last year and I'm deciding which ones I want to make a again. I'm figuring out what I'd do differently this time. And remembering those quilts that I meant to make but never quite got around to.



I can do ten baby quilts in a month!