Baby Clothes Quilts: Labor of Love!

I decided to take on a project while Colin was deployed this spring. A woman on base asked me if I could turn her twin daughter's baby clothes and blankets into quilts for their hope chests. While I hadn't done something like that quite yet I had been planning to make one for Elin in a few years. Always up for a challenge I thought I'd take it! It all started with a whole lot of clothes and blankets....

I had a blast deciding how to cut up each outfit trying to preserve the uniqueness of each item while ensuring it would stay connected to the quilt indefinitely. The one thing the mother wanted was to keep their hospital outfits intact so the girls could show their children one day how little they were when they were born. I never thought of that and after asking around, I could not find anyone who had every heard of doing this. So of course I had to come up with a plan! 

I managed to adhere all of the clothes, including the center outfits to the fabric with a iron on webbing material. Careful top stitching followed as the webbing would eventually fade away. I was pretty excited to get everything to cooperate! 

Although morning sickness slowed me down a bit I managed to get them done by my May 1st deadline, just a few days before Colin returned. All in all it took a little over 50 hours but I had a great time creating each square, picking out colorful fabrics according to the mother's preferences and sewing them all together. 

Alex's Quilt:

Lilly's Quilt:

I have to say I love the back of the quilts. I had a bunch of receiving blankets I wanted to incorporate but they would have been king size blankets by the time I was done. So I decided to piece them into a strip quilt and use that as a backing. 

                                                   

My favorite part is the binding. It means it's almost finished and I can sit back and watch a movie when I sew thousands of little stitches to seal the blanket. 

Overall it was quite a task but a very fun experience. It's funny how you grow attached to quilts that you spend so much time on. Letting them go is easier said than done! I cannot wait to start Elin's in a few years, I'd like her to be a little older so she can appreciate the effort that goes into it. 

Ready for delivery!