Baby Boy Quilt using Speedy Baby 2 Pattern Tutorial and Free Pattern

Speedy Baby 2 Pattern from  Deslynn Mecham on the Quilt Taffy Blog

A good friend of mine was pregnant with her new baby boy. I was dying to use this ducky fabric I had in my stash...now to find complimentary charm squares and borders for this special gift. I could not find any charm squares that I liked to match the centerpiece of this quilt. So I found 8 fabrics that went well with the center square and decided to cut my own 5" charm squares. 32 are needed for this quilt so I cut 4, 5" squares out of each fabric.

Jennifer, her husband and children are wonderful people and I have known Jennifer for 25 years. We went to school together and were in the Gold Pride Marching/Concert band. We even worked together at a little accessory store when her oldest boys were just babies. So you can understand  years later when she is having this miracle baby boy I was so excited to make him a special quilt.

Items needed:
1/4 yard of 8 different fabrics for 5" charm squares or a 32 pack of charm squares
1 yard for inner border
1 yard for second border
2 yards for back
thread for piecing blocks
thread for quilting
1 fat quarter for center - will cut 16.5" square
1/2 yard for double fold binding
crib size Warm & Natural batting

Tools needed:
If cutting charms from yardage use a 5" square template. Omnigrid Grip 5" square ruler template was used for this project.
cutting mat
rotary cutter
ruler(s)
sewing machine
snipping scissors

Instructions:
If not using a charm pack, start with cutting 32 - 5" squares
Then cut the fat quarter to a 16.5" square
For inner border cut 3 - 6" x wof strips. Cut 2 strips to measure 6x16.5" (from one strip). Cut 2 strips to measure 6x27.5"
For second border cut 4 - 5" x wof strips. Cut 4 strips to measure 5"x36.5"
Binding fabric cut 5 - 2.5" x wof strips
 
Sewing:
With the center square sew a 16.5" inner border strip to each side of the square. Press seam to border fabric. Now sew the 27.5" inner border fabric to the top and bottom of the center square. Press seam to border fabric.

 

Make 2 rows of 6 charms each, this will be used as the charm square border. Again press all seams in one direction. Add each row to the sides of the center square with the inner border. Press seams. Now make 2 rows of 8 charms each. Add these to the top and bottom of your center piece.

For the second border add 36.5" strips to each side of the charm border of the center of the quilt. With the additional two second border strips sew a charm square on to each end. Then sew one strip to the top and one to the bottom. Make sure to press all seams.

Piece the back as needed to have a large enough piece to be slightly larger than the quilt top for the sandwiching and quilting.

Sandwich the quilt top, batting and quilt bottom. Baste/pin very well.

The fun part - quilting. Quilt as desired. I was inspired by all the squares to quilt squares starting with the center block. Began with a 2" square in the center then continued sewing larger squares around it at a 2" interval until the entire center and first border were quilted. For the charm squares I quilted each charm with 3 squares an inch apart. For the second border quilted around the seam and then every 2 inches again until 3 squares were visible.

Once the quilting is complete, trim/square up the quilt. Time to bind. Take your binding strip (do a double fold bind strip) and pin to quilt. Sew binding.

There you have it - the perfect baby/toddler quilt!

Pattern link: http://schoolgirlsamplers.com/pdftutorialspatterns/SpeedyBaby2.pdf

 

  

Simple Kitchen Towel Tutorial

My best friend, Jen, and I have known since we were teenagers. For the last 15 years she has been afflicted with MS. This is not a pretty disease and it has caused Jen great pain. Recently she moved to her new house in our old home town. Since moving she has been decorating her place, mostly through online shopping. Jen doesn't get around too well so she hadn't been able to put up any of her purchased goodies.

During my recent visit home to see Jen I helped her put up drapes in her living room, bedroom and bathroom/laundry room. She did not have anything for her kitchen window - which was screaming for a valance. While talking I told her, "you know, I can whip something up. What do you like for the kitchen?" Her answer was yellow, just like her grandmother always had in her kitchen. I also know that my best friend loves owls. I found the perfect fabric at Fabric.com called Nite Owls - Yellow Sketch.

After ordering a yard of this fabric I thought well what am I going to do with the scraps. The valance is only going to use 20"x40" so that leaves 16" x40". Then the idea to make kitchen towels to match came to mind. With a pack of flour sack kitchen towels from Wal-Mart the idea took shape.

Simple Kitchen Towel - makes a set of 2

Items needed:
1 - flour sack towel
1/8 yard of fabric
thread to match (for a white towel, use white)

Tools needed:
rotary cutter
cutting mat
sewing machine
snipping scissors
ruler

Instructions:
Press the towel for easier cutting. Cut hems off towel on all sides. Once this is done, cut the towel in half so that you end up with two towels that are approximately 13"x26" each. From the fabric cut a 3" x16" strip - you will need two, one for each towel.

Measure from the bottom 3" this will be where the bottom of the fabric strip will go. Take the fabric strip and finger press a small fold so that the raw edges are under the fabric front - do this for the top and bottom of the strip. Now pin the strip down to the towel (the bottom of the strip at least 3" from the raw bottom of the towel.

Take the raw edge at the top and bottom of the towel and fold over twice towards the back, pin and then sew two seams on both the bottom and top. Once you have a double seam on both the top and bottom of the towel then sew the strip to the towel both at top of strip and bottom of strip. Trim the strip sides even with towel. Now fold over the raw edges on both sides, pin and sew. You can do a simple stitched line on both sides or you may do double like the top and bottom. Repeat with the second towel.

Viola - a kitchen towel set of two!

Hope you enjoy. Would love to see your comments about what you made using this tutorial.