Tied Baby Quilts

Thank you for all the sweet comments about the Baby Shower.  As I mentioned, the other activity we had  was to tie some baby quilts for SweetiePie.  Long-time readers will remember that it’s our tradition to tie a quilt for the new couple at a bridal shower, but we’d never done one at a baby shower and it never really even occurred to me — probably because they’re so small and it’s hard to get a group around a little baby quilt.

To back up a bit, the babies in our family all had little tied quilts with prairie points on them.  (I blogged about them years ago, here on my old blog.)  I knew that SweetiePie doesn’t care for prairie points, so I didn’t plan on making any tied quilts for the baby until she’s a toddler.  (Because ALL our toddlers MUST have a tied quilt!  Out of the five babies between MyDadLovesMeBestSister and me, four of them dragged their tied quilts around until they were worn out.)  But, a few weeks before the baby shower, SweetiePie asked if we could talk to MDLMBS about tying a baby quilt at the shower.  I was surprised at her request, but she said she loves the quilt that we tied for her at the bridal shower — she loves the idea that the people she loves all had their hand in making a quilt for them.

So … how could we refuse?  Especially, since I was thrilled LOL!  Even though we were a small group, I realized that we were too many to squeeze around one quilt, so I decided on two.  I raided my little etsy store for fabric and then, the next issue was those prairie points — I knew they would have to go.  SweetiePie LOVES pom poms, so I decided to put them around one of the quilts and just do a regular binding around the other one.  I took my trusty quilt frame over to MDLMBS’s house and set the quilts up — coincidentally, in the same room where we tied the bridal shower quilt.

Look at that teamwork!  I was so proud of the ladies who don’t normally sew.  One of the girls told me I needed to take her picture and send it to her mom, because her mom would never believe that she was sewing LOL!

The best part about these little quilts are the ties.  They’re kid-tested and definitely kid-approved.  My very favorite part about the baby shower was when CuteNiece1 arrived a little late (after driving in from Chicago) and walked into the room where we had just started tying the quilts. She yelled out, “NUBBIES!!!”  That’s what our children all called the little ties.  And she was so thrilled that the next generation will be brought up with nubbies too.  She said she still keeps one of her little quilts with her but that, by now, all the nubbies are missing.  (Of course, I told her to bring it back to me and I’ll fix that!)  The children love to rub those little nubbies between their fingers when they’re falling asleep.  One of the little rascals rubbed them so much that he would pull them out, so we gave him a little jar to save them in ;-D.

This little quilt is made with Art Gallery’s Floral Dums Punch on the front and Sarah Jane’s Wee Wander print on the back.  We had so much fun tying this one.  Instead of tying in our usual grid pattern, we decided to just randomly go with the print and put a tie on each of the big flowers.  And, for the first time, we used more than one color for the yarn.  It’s bound with the famous Timeless Treasures stripe fabric.

The other quilt is the pom pom quilt.  I don’t really expect the pom poms to hold up to years of toddler abuse, but it will be really cute for wrapping up that little baby, and then, at some point, if it gets too raggedy, it can be replaced with a regular binding.

The front of this quilt is Blend Fabrics Born Wild Patchwork on the front and their Born Wild Woodland Creatures {Looove} on the back.  The patchwork on the front provided the perfect grid to use for the quilting — it was nice not to have to mark out squares for the ties.

So, that was fun, and now, I want to make a cute, tied PINK quilt for ME! Baby girl is all set for quilts — in addition to a few other little blankets she has at home, SweetiePie and I worked on a big-stitch quilt the last time she was here. It’s finish was interrupted by the fact that Hester had to go in for repairs, but it will get finished in a few weeks. And, of course, Grandma will be making a little hand-quilted quilt for her. No rush on that one — it will be a longer term project because I’m a slow quilter!

Ok — must dash — I’m leaving this weekend for a family visit + quilt market and there are a million things left to do! Have a great weekend!
XOXO,
Anna