Baby Quilts with Butterflies!

"Blue Butterfly," "A Kaleidoscope of Butterflies," and "Pink Butterfly" baby quilts, 34" x 34"

I recently made some baby quilts using Viva Terra fabric that "celebrates the beauty of the desert" with images of butterflies, zucculent plants, wind blown leaves, and polished rocks in blues and pinks and purples. One of the fabrics had lovely large butterflies which I fussy cut to make my art quilt "Social Butterflies."

This close up of the Blue quilt shows the center butterfly fabric, the second butterfly fabric, the leaves, and a textured fabric.

This close up of the Pink quilt shows the second butterfly fabric, the succulents, polished rocks, leaves, and a textured fabric.

The hand-dyed fabric that I added to "A Kaleidoscope of Butterflies" is what I used on the backs of the Blue and Pink quilts.

Black & White African Safari Baby Quilt

"Black & White African Safari" baby quilt, 34" x 34", handmade by Pam Geisel

In October, Village Artisans is having a community lobby show with the theme B&W+1 (black and white plus one color). In August, the Quiltsy Team (a group of on-line quilters on Etsy) is having a challenge called "Black & White & Spread All Over" in which we were to make something that was, you guessed it, black and white plus one color! Two birds! One stone!

I have several black & white fabrics in my stash so I chose one that had black and white drawings of African safari animals including giraffes, zebras, elephants, and cheetahs. I decided that my plus one color would be red.

I pieced them with alternating black or red squares, with the red squares in the center. I also added a thin red inner border around the squares.

I added a black outer border then quilted "x"s through the squares using red thread. The backing and binding are a black & white zebra print.

You can see the other Quiltsy Team pieces on their Pinterest page. The exhibit at Village Artisans (in Yellow Springs) will be Oct. 4-Nov. 13 with an artist reception on Oct. 19 from 6-9 pm.

More about Black & White African Safari Quilt

Sea Breeze Baby Quilt

"Sea Breeze Baby Quilt," handmade by Pam Geisel, October 2016

I made this lovely baby quilt using Island Batik fabrics from the Wind & Sea collection. It's a pretty straight forward construction with quilting lines that made "x"s in all of the squares.

More about Sea Breeze

Black & White & Loved All Over Baby Quilt in "Black and White" exhibit at Village Artisans

"Black and White and Loved All Over," 39" x 34", handmade by Pam Geisel, July 2016

This highly graphic baby quilt features black and white animals including elephants, tigers, monkeys, birds, giraffes, hippos, rhinos, gnus, gorillas, owls, iguanas, turtles, snakes, frogs, and more.

The back also has black and white prints including a section of letters of the alphabet.

It is machine washable and dryer safe.

It is on display in the "Black and White" show at Village Artisans, 100 Corry St. in Yellow Springs. The show is made up of only pieces that are black and white. The show runs through the end of August and is open M-Th from 11a-6p, F-Sa from 11a-7p, and Su from noon-6p.

There is an artist reception on Friday, Aug 19 from 6-9 pm.

Baby Quilts with Animals

 

"African Safari" handmade baby quilt by Pam Geisel, 29" x 33.5"

So I was doing inventory of fabric that I've bought to make baby quilts and I noticed that the baby quilts that I currently have all have images of animals on them.

Here's a close up of some of the African animals on the "African Safari" baby quilt. Some of the images are of the animals with their babies.

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"Forest Friends" handmade baby quilt by Pam Geisel, 35" x 35"

This baby quilt is made with cotton flannel and features baby forest animals.

In this close up you can see some of the forest friends are hedgehogs, bunnies, and owls. There are also raccoons, deer, foxes, squirrels, and lady bugs.

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"Owl Always Love You" handmade baby quilt by Pam Geisel, 35" x 35"

This baby quilt is also made with cotton flannel. I just love the title.

There is only one animal on this quilt, but how adorable are those owls?

All of these baby quilts are machine washable and in gender-neutral colors so they are good for both boys and girls, and a good bet when you don't know what sex the baby will be. You can find the baby quilts I have available in my Etsy shop.

African Safari Baby Quilt - Project Quilting

"African Safari" Baby Quilt, 29 x 33.5", made for Project Quilting, Season 7, Challenge 4: I Need a Vacation, Feb. 2016 in Yellow Springs, Ohio

Challenge recap for  "I Need a Vacation":

 
Vacation is the inspiration for this challenge. Use the way vacation makes you feel or the places you'd go or the transportation to get there. Anything vacation related that inspires you.

For my project, we're going on an African Safari. I actually have a small box of fabrics with safari animals printed on them. They are mostly small pieces, not a lot of yardage which is why it's a small box. There were 30 of these small animal prints that measured about 3" x 3". They have little printed quilt patterns on them.

I pieced them with a tan fabric with oval spots on it so that each animal box is separated by sashing. And I added a brown border then machine quilted wavy lines in the sashing.

The backing fabric is one print that has small safari animals floating on a brown background and larger ones in a row across the bottom.

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Click on any of the photos to see larger images.

To read more about Project Quilting, go here.

To see other entries for this challenge, visit the I Need a Vacation link up.

Forest Friends Baby Quilt

 "Forest Friends" baby quilt, 35" x 35"

This extra-soft baby quilt is made with cotton flannel featuring adorable baby forest animals on a green background so it can be used for a boy or a girl.

There are bunnies, hedgehogs, raccoons, owls, deer, foxes, squirrels, and lady bugs.

Tweet Dreams Baby Quilt - Project Quilting

"Tweet Dreams Baby Quilt" 30" x 30", made for Project Quilting Season 4, Challenge 6: Hurray for Spring, Mar. 2013

Quick recap of the challenge: "Hurray for Spring"
1. Hurray for Spring.

Awhile ago I set aside six hand-dyed pastel fat quarters because I knew I wanted to make a baby quilt with them, only I didn't know what I wanted to do with them. Every time a Project Quilting challenge was announced, I'd look at the fat quarters to see if I thought I could use them for that challenge. Sure, I probably could have done something for "A Square in a Square…in a square," "Annie’s Vision," "Wish Upon a Star." or even "Print Publication" but all those times I had other ideas that I liked more.

For this quilt I cut the fat quarters so I had six 5" squares (finished size) and pieced them together. Then I made five flowers with stems and a sweet little bird that I machine appliqued with a variegated pastel rainbow thread.

I quilted 'x'es through the top four rows of squares then echo quilted around the flowers and birds using the same variegated pastel rainbow thread.

The backing fabric is yellow with orange, green, blue and purple butterflies on it. The binding is pieced with the hand-dyed pastel fabric.

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As always, you can click on any photo to see it larger.

To see other entries for this challenge, visit the Hurray For Spring page.

Keepsake Quilts Made With Kids Clothing

 

"Baby Boy Blue", 31" x 25" 

I've made several T-shirt quilts and was thinking about making some quilts using baby and kids clothing. Since I don't have kids I asked my sister if she had some clothes that her kids have outgrown. I don't think I told her what I was going to do with them. 

 

So I made some samples quilts. I made one using 6 pieces of clothing her son wore. Just like his Daddy he wore lots of polo shirts and seemed to favor a blue and yellow color combination. I quilted over the shirts but I made sure that all of the pockets were left accessible.

"Sweet Pea", 27" x 32"

The pink one had 6 pieces of clothes her daughter had worn. The four shirts, the light purple row under "Big Sister" was from a pant leg and the wide strip in the middle with the flowers and cherries was the bottom of a dress that my sister loved.

Most of the embroidered parts were already on the clothing. I did cut out a few fun pieces that were on the sleeves and made them into patches that were appliqued in other places. 

 

"I've Been Very, Very Good", 25" x 25"

And there were even a few pieces of clothing that both kids wore for Christmas, so I thought it would be fun to make a Christmas-themed quilt.

With some of the tops that had snaps I left them so the snaps could be opened and left a secret message inside.

So guess what I gave my sister and brother-in-law for Christmas this year? Three quilts made with the clothes their kids had worn.

Like the T-shirt quilts, all the clothing was stabilized before it was cut and pieced together. The borders and bindings were made with cotton fabrics and pieced by machine. The quilts were machine quilted and all have hanging sleeves.

Shark Baby Quilt

My dear friend Erin is expecting her first baby. I asked her if she wanted a baby quilt to hang on the wall or one to use, and she said she wanted one to use, but that she had one request. It had to have sharks on it. Apparently her husband has a thing for the movie "Jaws."

They didn't know the sex of the baby at the time and were planning a yellow and green nursery, although she said she didn't care if the quilt matched the nursery.

Up until this point I hadn't seen any fabric with sharks, but I did an internet search and found lots of fabric with sharks on it. Including the one that I ended up using.

Sharks: check. Green and Yellow: check. Cute enough for a baby quilt: check.

Plus the added bonus: text. As a graphic designer, I've always loved text, so once I saw this fabric, I knew that was what I was going to use.

So here's hoping that Erin & Ben have a beautiful, healthy baby, just wait a few years before you let the baby watch "Jaws."

Baby Quilts for a Baby Shower

I'm going to be a great-aunt, although I am seriously too young to be a "great-aunt." It's time for the baby shower and it just doesn't seem right, getting a gift for the shower. I'm a quilter, so I need to give a baby quilt.

Our insurance guy mentioned that he comes from a big family and that his mom has over 60 grandkids. My first thought was that I hoped she wasn't a quilter, as most quilters I know feel obligated to make quilts for all of their grandkids.

So far I've made quilts for my niece and nephew that came after I became a quilter so now it's starting into the next generation. Although I hope I don't end up with over 60 nieces and nephews!