Baby Quilt

What do you do when you own a fabric shop and am invited to a baby shower for your boyfriend's niece to be?

You make a baby quilt of course!

I started out wanting to make a simple but elegant quilt with this cute animal panel fabric by Gingiber that we have available in the store. 

From there I decided that I would frame the creatures with green and pink fabrics from the same designer.

Because I had an even number of animals and an odd number of blocks, I had to create something different for the middle of the quilt.  So, like the pinterestite that I am,  I took to Pinterest to figure out how best to make a heart.  Found a design I liked and modified it to fit my quilt block, and voila! Cute little heart.

I was all set to finish the quilt right then and there when my mom told me it was too small for a baby quilt.  I thought this was rather dumb because babies are small anyway so what did it matter?  

But like always she got in my head and I started second-guessing myself.  She had recommended adding a simple border but I thought that was too boring.  

In typical Katie fashion, I had to find a way to go above and beyond my expectations for myself.  That is when I thought of Susan Daniels, a woman who inspires me with her continuing creativity, who came into the shop one day and showed my mom and me a baby quilt she had put together with triangle tabs going around the border.  

I was inspired.  And it's freaking adorable. 

And a little bit of a pain in the butt to put on, but well worth it. 

I then bound my quilt with the same fabric I used for the heart to frame it all nicely.  I even tried my hand at sewing the backside of the binding by hand, which takes a while but comes out a lot nicer than if I had used the machine. 

This small, baby quilt took me 13.5 hours to make plus $65 in materials.  If I had to price it, I would say it's worth about $335.  

What many people do not understand is that homemade quilts take a lot of time, effort, and money to make.  That the ones you buy in stores like Walmart or TJ Maxx are massed produced by people who barely get paid for their efforts.  So, when you walk into a quilt shop and start complaining about how much the quilts cost and get a weird look from the proprietors or other quilters; you know that odd expression you catch on our faces before we have time to fake a smile?  That look of you having four heads is because you're being clueless and rude.  

Quilts are works of art that have a lot of thought and love put into them.  They are meant to bring about a series of emotions and desires.  When one is made for you, a loved one is showing you how much they care and how special you are to them.  Quilts are timeless and often unappreciated treasures that are meant to be cherished for the rest of your life.

I'm extremely grateful and glad that I was able to make this quilt for the new addition to a lovely family and that it was well-received.  I hope it will bring her comfort on gray days and make her smile on sunny ones.  That it will dry her tears and vanquish her fears.  But most of all I hope that the majority of the baby spit-up will wash out. 

Let's make this the bee's knees.