Dr. Suess Baby Quilt Finished!

We started a baby quilt right after our return from Phoenix in February.  I posted an article about it back here, and then a little update on Dr. Suess’ birthday.  Since then we have completed the quilt and its new owner has it in her possession as well.

Our original deadline was the beginning of April, but then baby Gavin decided to come early.  Four weeks early!  So I bumped up our quilting time into overdrive so that it would be sent to him.  ~smile~  We did run into a few snags while working on this project.

First of all, the fabric company totally mislead us about the size of the individual book covers.  None of them were the same size, and not at all the 8″ x 10″ size we were led to believe.  Needless to say all my math and figuring went out the window once we started cutting the panel apart.  The size was 7″ x 10.5″ on some and 6.5″ x 10″ on others.  I had to do some creative sewing when attaching the sashing strips.  We decided to add one 2″ wide long sashing row between each panel row and to the side lengthwise on each panel.  We chose a navy solid fabric since it was a little boy and it would frame all the panels nicely.

Once all the sewing was complete, it was time to layer and start quilting.  Sue suggested the diagonal pattern, and I am quite pleased with how it has turned out.  I decided it was time to try quilting with my new walking foot.  I am a stickler for straight lines, and if it was going to be diagonal it had better be truly from one corner to the opposite corner.  How did we determine where and how to start?  I took a long piece of masking tape and ran it from one corner to the opposite corner, and then stitched my first line just to the left of the tape – from one edge to beyond the opposite edge so I didn’t backstitch to set the thread.  I then used the guide on the walking foot to sew approximately every 2″.  At first, I tried alternating the direction of my sewing, but that meant I had to keep moving the guide.  Eventually, I decided that was too much work and it made it too easy to make a mistake.  Once the stitching was complete, I added the binding and Sue hand-sewed it down.  The final step was in Gavin’s great-aunt’s hands to mail it to him and his mom.  We hope they enjoy it and feel the love that was stitched into every inch of that quilt.

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1 Response

  1. March 26, 2017

    […] polka-dot baby quilt.  After the success of machine quilting the Dr. Suess quilt (see more info here on well it turned out!!) I felt like I could try another one.  I also moved the position of the […]

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