Little Jack's Corner: January 2011

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

John Deere Baby Quilt

This quilt was not commissioned by anyone. It was a case of love at first site in the fabric store. The front is regular cotton and the back is a snuggly flannel. I love the cute little cows, horses, sheep and tractors. I have two little boys who love everything John Deere, so my eye is automatically drawn to the fabrics that John Deere produces. They really have quite a big selection of a lot of fun things for babies and children.

I had noticed in my browsing a red barn-wood print that ended up going perfectly with this quilt as a binding.

I have recently changed my method of binding as well. I still machine attach one side and then blind stitch the other, but after a little research and noticing that the aging binding on the quilts of my older children was beginning to wear out, I decided that from now on I'm going to use bias binding whenever possible. I found a great tutorial here and have been using the instructions to make the continuous-cut bias tape for all of my past several quilts.

This quilt is currently at Lucky's Grill, waiting for an owner. The price for this snuggly little guy is $50.

Cupcake Car Seat Tent

I recently completed this car seat tent for a friend, along with six burp cloths. Originally, she asked for brown and pink polka dots, but I saw this cupcake pattern and fell in love. Fortunately, she agreed!

I no longer have an infant carrier to use for display with the car seat tents. You just have to use your imagination to see them draped elegantly around a sweet little bundle. Both the front and back of this particular cover are regular cotton. The back is the diagonal stripe that I used for the straps and you can see it in the detail photo below.

Don't those cupcakes make your mouth water?

I edge-stitched both the tent and the burp cloths with a very simple wave design in pink. My only regret was that I didn't get pictures of the burp cloth bundle before I sent it off. My friend showed up to pick it up literally as I was tying the ribbon around the cloths. The front was a rich chocolate brown with tiny polka-specs (not big enough to be called dots) in pink, cream and green. The back was a pinky-coral crackled design. Both, of course, were in flannel and they went with the cupcake fabric very well.

Materials

I use good quality fabrics on all of my items, usually 100% cotton. While there are bargain fabrics available, the cost savings aren't worth what is given up in quality.

Most of my quilts are basic woven cotton on the front and snuggly flannel on the back, although there are exceptions. I like to use a high loft synthetic batting as well. I hand-bind the edges of all of my quilts with a French binding, which has a double thickness for added strength. Additionally, I have begun binding my quilts with a bias-cut binding, which is stronger and lasts even longer.

The burp cloths are 100% cotton flannel on both sides and I have found that that is plenty absorbent for most baby spit-ups.

Receiving blankets are also 100% cotton, with flannel and/or lightweight cotton for each side. The double flannel blankets are great for winter, while the double lightweight blankets are good for summer.

All of my baby products are made to be used well and often! Let your baby sleep with it, use it as a cape or a tent and then throw it in the washer. I believe that motherhood is a dirty job and I personally don't have the time for items that require special handling or (gasp!) dry cleaning.