Needle and Thread, with Mixed Up Fabrics

Grandbabies are coming hot and heavy in the last year!!  I made Libby her patriotic quilt last year (see it here).  I had to send the flimsy, backing and binding to a fellow quilter in Washington for her to finish it for me.  I am horrible at quilting with my DSM and wanted this quilt to be a keeper!  Presley arrived in May, Gunner is coming in July and a "gender unknown" is due in September!  Well, I had to shift gears a bit and decided to make "tummy-time" quilts.  I used several different kinds of fabric cut into 5" squares to give different textures for little hands to explore.  I also put many different kinds of ribbons for the same reason.

Some of the fabrics were a challenge to work with!  I am so used to using 100% cotton and found the poly stuff is slick, stretches in every direction, and easily puckers.  I did find some faux suede which was a dream to work with!

The "textured" fabrics were fun to look for and led me down aisles I never venture down.  The ribbons ranged from silky to grosgrain, crocheted, and pleated grosgrain.  I dug down into my "stash" (it was a shallow dive) of ribbon...do you recognize this ribbon?

I just did a SID with my walking foot (I don't have a hopping foot for my DSM)

I love using the Dimpled Minky

for the backing and I wrapped it around to use as the binding as well.  I didn't use any batting (so they aren't true quilts) so the hand of the quilt is amazing.  I hope they also use the quilts in the car and strollers as they are light and warm.

After the quilt was finished, I embroidered the names of the grandbabies on the faux suede fabric.

Another grandson (Gunner's big brother) will be 2 in August, so I played with a design I saw somewhere in my hunting online (if you know where, I'll happily give credit).  I used an inexpensive blanket I bought after Christmas at Walmart for the backing (fleece blankets work great!).  I used my walking foot to sew wavy lines across the quilt.  I found that putting binding on with corners that are less than 90 degrees is a real pain!!  The blanket I used as a combo of batting and backing had rounded corners and I didn't have enough fabric to make a bias binding, so I did a weird slanted cut to get rid of the curves.

I quite like the ripple effect after I washed the quilt.  I did wash all my fabrics prior to cutting them and after I finished them.  He loves his new quilt!

It is so very nice to be back sewing and being creative again.  I am quilting the Tummy Time quilt for the baby due in September...a beautiful light green dimpled Minky fabric!  I'm also making 2 more to have just in case...one with pink and one with blue Minky backings because I purchased a yard of each color and only used 1/2 of the width for each quilt.  I need to find more baby fabric to make another one with the light green.

Thanks for hanging with me during this long dry spell for caring for my dad - he turned 98 on Father's Day.  I am trying to keep this quilting related because you really don't want to hear about the day to day of my boring life!!