Have you ever made a baby clothes quilt? I’ve got one in progress that I’ve been working on for several years. It started with my daughter’s baby clothes. I kept out several of the better items that I remember her wearing with love and cut out a 6”x 6” squares from each of them. Over the years, I have taken out 6” x 6” squares from all kinds of her clothes that she’s worn. I have about 30 separate squares at the moment.
Those 30 squares are sewn into 5 nine-patch blocks. While those 5 blocks are hardly enough to make a quilt, they are enough to make about half a quilt topper. It’s taken about five years to collect that many squares. I imagine it will take another 5 to 6 years to collect enough squares to make another 5 blocks.
I’ll need another 5 blocks beyond that to get a total of fifteen. 15 blocks at 15” x 15” will create a quilt topper that’s roughly 45” x 75” is going to make a great quilt topper to send her off to college with. The back will be her favorite color at that time, I should imagine, with the border done in black. The border can be as wide as I’d like it to be, which means I could add another 2” to 4” to it.
How Do You Do This?
Simply put, clean the clothes that you are going to remove the 6” x 6” squares from. Take the square section from a flat portion of the clothing – often the back or from a pant leg is best. Keep the squares ironed and tucked away in a clean, dust free place. As you collect three squares, sew them together in a row using ½ inch seams. When you have 3 sets of 3 rows, sew the rows together, again using a ½ inch seam. Iron these blocks out as you complete them and keep them tucked away some where safe, dry and dust free.
This is a project that will take a great deal of time and love. I’m looking forward to finishing the quilt sometime around her 18th birthday and giving it to her for Christmas that year. It’s not just a way to remember those early years, but to love every moment of them – and building this quilt is a tribute to that. I think it will be the best quilt I ever make.
Do you enjoy quilting?
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