25 Years of Quilting -- Baby Quilts

I was in my late 20s when I started quilting, and not surprisingly, many of my friends & relatives were busy popping out babies. Naturally, as a quilter I wanted to supply baby quilts. But back in those days I only worked by hand and it took me about 6 months to crank out a quilt. I wish I could have gifted more of my friends and family with baby quilts, but it simply wasn't possible. Here are 3 of the half dozen I made between 1986 and 1990. (Sorry if the images are fuzzy; these are scanned photos.)



But by 1995 I had a new sewing machine and I was putting tops together within a matter of weeks and learning how to use my walking foot to machine quilt straight lines across a quilt. When a co-worker and very close friend found herself pregnant with twins I actually managed to crank out 2 quilts AND finish them within weeks of the twins' birth.
Check out the Elvis fabric in this first one. My friend is a huge Elvis fan. The old world map fabric in the 2nd quilt was to celebrate her husband's Peace Corps experience. I had such fun with these. And I know they were well-loved.


While working on the twins' quilts I unexpectedly became pregnant myself. That was such a shocker, not only to me, but to my friends & family. And my generous quilting friends saw to it that we were ourselves gifted with 4 quilts. That was a good thing because my job & an infant kept me so busy that for the first 2 years I did very little quilting and then I eased back in very slowly as I finally learned to carve out time for myself.


And these days when I want to provide a baby quilt, I know how to make it quick and simple, yet still have fun with the design. This is from April of 2008.

Comments

  1. Tara MarieNovember 17, 2009 at 8:42 PM

    Your quilts are beautiful. I also love your piles and piles of fabric.

    ReplyDelete
  2. PhylNovember 18, 2009 at 12:20 AM

    Thank you, Tara Marie! And obviously I love my piles and piles of fabric, too, LOL! It's such fun to play with the colors sometimes.

    ReplyDelete
  3. ChristineNovember 28, 2009 at 6:16 PM

    Beautiful, Phyl! What a wonderful baby gift to be able to craft yourself. :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. PhylNovember 28, 2009 at 11:02 PM

    Thank you! That one was very fun and went to a deserving young family.

    ReplyDelete

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