One Down…

Wow! That took longer than expected! I finally finished the baby gifts for friend one, including a doll quilt that took a little longer to make than I had anticipated.

Here’s the quilt front:

I had this “dancing in the flowers” theme in mind for the quilt, which was largely inspired by my 3 year old’s love for both dancing and, well, flowers! That’s supposed to be a dancing girl up there in the corner, and on the back I stamped some more dancing girls in what is supposed to look a bit like a paper chain.

I used scraps for the flowers, binding, etc, which saved on time and money, and was fine for such a little quilt (about 20″x22″).

Part of the reason this quilt took me so long was because I was scared to death to do the quilting. I have a brand new free motion foot for my machine and had every intention on using it, but totally chickened out after practicing on scraps for a couple days. Ended up doing a bit of scenery, I guess you could say, with just a little bit of quilting. I debated using more rays from the sun to get a few more stripes in there, but in the end decided to leave well enough alone!

Time also played a big role in my decision to stitch the binding by machine. It doesn’t look nearly as well as if it were done by hand, but my hand-stitching goes super-slow and frankly I just needed to get it done. The baby wasn’t due until March, so I thought I’d have more time. But, the baby had other plans! She came last week so I was really anxious to get this stuff out to my friend. My next quilt will most definitely be bound by hand though, as I really didn’t care for the look of the machine stitches on the border.

And, I put together a quick blanket made of nice soft fleece and flannel. They’re in Wisconsin so I opted for fabrics that would keep baby nice and warm! I also made it rather large so that I can be used as a play mat and can continue to be wrapped around the sweet little girl as she grows.

So, between the dresses, the blanket, and the doll quilt for big sister, I think this gift is ready to make it’s journey to it’s final destination. Now on to baby number 2!

What are your favorite handmade baby gifts?