Right around thanksgiving time, I was sitting on the couch and I heard this "cha-ching" noise that came from my phone. What was that?? I forgot that I had downloaded the Etsy app for my phone and I had no idea that when you got an order, it made a cash register noise! Anyways, Jennifer sent me a bundle of clothes that she wanted made into a quilt for her twins Haden & Kate to share. First thing I did was unpack all the clothes to see what she had sent and if anything specific was marked.
I sent Jennifer the pic above along with an alternate layout in case she wanted to split it into one small quilt for each kid, and showing what clothes weren't being used.
| 
|
Jennifer decided she wanted to keep it as one quilt instead of two and asked me to make just a couple adjustments to the layout. Once that was decided, I was ready to start cutting everything up!
As usual, I made a grid/layout in my notebook to decide final sizing for all the shirts. For the baby clothes, I have to do a lot of work to get them ready for sewing into the quilt. You can see in the photo above that there are bibs, hats, a vest and tie, etc. Here's an in progress pic so you can see how they go from fluffy and crazy to ready to quilt.
For shirts with multiple layers, I usually have to sew the layers together (like the vest to the shirt underneath) and then I cut out the excess fabric that's no longer needed so it isn't too bulky. Same thing with the tie - it must have been an inch thick so I cut it apart and stitched it back down.
At first, I was a little worried about making a quilt for little kids and leaving the buttons on it, but then I realized that if the parents are ok with buttons on the clothing, then they should be fine on the quilt too. I did make sure they were stitched on securely but I guess I'm just a little paranoid about choking hazards.
Once I got all the shirts cut, appliqued and interfaced, they were ready to be sewn into the quilt top.
Once I got all the shirts cut, appliqued and interfaced, they were ready to be sewn into the quilt top.
I sewed the shirts in sets of two, then into blocks of four and then sewed the blocks into rows and finish up the quilt top.
| 
|
I got the quilt loaded onto the quilt machine and did an all-over meandering design on the quilt. I used a natural muslin backing based on what Jennifer wanted and it came out really cute.
Once it was off the frame, I used the excess backing material to make matching binding for the quilt, trimmed all the loose threads and packaged it up to ship.
The quilt is a Christmas gift so the earlier I could get it there the better, I got it mailed on the 17th with a delivery date of the 20th, just in time! Well some of you may say "there's still five days left until christmas", there's really only 2 mailing days after the 20th so as far as I was concerned that was cutting it pretty close. I hope Jennifer (and Haden & Kate) love their new quilt!
