Monday, March 29, 2010

Infant Blanket

I had the day off, and instead of working on any UFOs (bad me! slap on the wrist!), I loafed around, went shopping with a friend, then took a Benedryl induced nap (darned Bradford Pear trees!) But that's okay, because who doesn't need one of those days every now and then. It was very nice.


So, today I thought I'd show you the project that inspired me to quilt and craft again. I take care of an 8 month old baby during the week. I've been looking through a book of activities to help enrich his playtime, and kept seeing references to texture blankets, and quilts with bright patterns. This was 3 months ago, so "Tigger" as I will call him here, was not crawling yet, and we were still having plenty of tummy-time. And I remembered that a few years back, I had made texture squares for the day care I worked at. Burlap, satin, pleather, suede, chenille, and a fluffy stuff that looks like I skinned a Smurf. And I still had more than half of what I purchased for those blocks.


I decided that I could make a blanket with both textures and patterns, and immediately headed to Wal-Mart to find some. I only purchased 1/4 yard cuts, because I knew I wasn't going to make many squares, and as I was picking out patterns, I also realized I had a fabric stash I could raid. I ended up with only 5 pattern fabrics from Wal-Mart, then added 10 more from my stash. My plan was to create one, two-sided blanket for playtime: Side A was patterns and colors, Side B was textures. I cut 8 1/2 inch squares of the patterns, so that with a 1/4 inch seam, I would have 8 inch blocks. I then sewed my textures together in larger chunks, and arranged them in a more haphazard placement so that everywhere the baby touched, he would feel something new. Since trying to do any kind of quilting would be impossible, I tied the quilt in the middle of every other square. And I used satin, with iron-on interfacing for stability, for the binding.

And it turned out awesome! I remembered how much fun it was to piece together the quilt tops, and how satisfying it is to sew on the binding. And then I wanted to do more, and then I realized I had plenty of things I could finish, and now here I am. Letting everyone know that UFOs do not need to remain unfinished! They can be completed, just as I completed this infant quilt. Which Tigger loves. That blue Smurf fur is everyone's favorite, though!

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