Baby Quilt

Today I finally got around to making a baby quilt for my boss. Although she's going on maternity leave real soon we are changing management so the last time we'll see her is in April. She's been trying for another baby for a while and sadly suffered a miscarriage last year. Finally though she is expecting a baby girl sometime in June this year.

I chose this fabric when Jilly and I went shopping a couple of weeks ago. My colleague and I agreed to go halves and I offered to make it up. I love to sew - so does she - but I kinda wanted to do it and lucky for me she was fine with that. I don't sew near as much these days and I do miss it.

We knew we wanted pretty and pink cos she already has a little boy and knows this one is a girl. I couldn't find exactly what we were looking for but we wanted a 'patchwork' feel and these pretty stripes fit the bill. I'd planned on doing machine quilting so all I had to do was layer it up and sew along each strip in turn - what could be easier. There are quilts and then there are real quilts and I have only ever made one real hand quilted quilt in my life - for my God-daughter Natasha - everything else is machine quilted but there's no shame in that.

I added really thin wadding in between because we wanted it fairly light weight for summer. I contributed the wadding and Pauline contributed the checked backing fabric. I had just enough to make the quilt a decent size and then had exactly enough wadding and fabric left over to make a quilted bag to carry it in. I even quilted the handles so the bag alone is really nice and sturdy.

Here is the quilt inside the bag. There's actually plenty of room to add a diaper or two, baby wipes and a bottle when she drops baby off at Grandma's for an hour or two; plus if you get the right kind of toy you can hook one or two around the handles. If she wants to she can use the quilt in the buggy and then use the bag for baby items for short trips.

If I'd have had more fabric I'd have added a pocket on the bag somewhere but sadly I didn't. I had a few pretty small scraps of the main fabric left which aren't good for anything much as they are. If I cut them into squares I may possible have enough to piece them together to make a dolly's quilt for Maddycakes so I won't throw them away. That project will have to wait until I find some backing fabric and I'm not in the mood to go digging today.

Since Pauline and I both contributed fabric and wadding from our own stash and only had to pay for the main patterned fabric (1 1/2 metres) it works out to be just £4.50 each. I think that's pretty good going for a lovely handmade gift for baby that you couldn't touch for that kind of money in the stores. Shelley is gonna love it!