Service Quilts

Hi Everyone,

If you belong to a quilt guild, then you know that many times they have service projects where they find a local organization that can use quilts.  Starting in January, our guild's service project was to make small baby quilts for the hospital.  The purpose of these quilts was to wrap up stillborn babies for their first/last visit with their family.  Later, the family will have a small quilt as a remembrance. 

 

At first I didn't know if I would participate.  It seemed pretty much a bummer and something I didn't want to think about.  But then I thought about it and I'm very much a sentimental person who appreciates keepsakes and remembrances, so I had a look through my stash, but I had nothing appropriate.

 



Deciding on fabric is tricky.  I didn't want anything too bright and happy, but I didn't want anything too plain, either.  I felt like something really sweet and soft was what I wanted.  I found a few things here and there and then struck gold at Joann Fabrics.  They have a whole line of soft pastels in quiet prints like dots and checks.

I tried to keep most of them gender-neutral, but I don't think that was hugely required. 

I don't know about you, but if I 'm going to get out fabric, think about something, and work on it, if it is a small project, I may as well make 2 or 3--it isn't that much more trouble than making one.

I did a little doodling and some searching for easy patterns and came up with a few ideas.  I particularly like these heart ones.  They are a bit difficult to see because the sun was shining on them as I took pictures.

 

Other than the hearts, which required the most "finicky" piecing, I also did some four-patches, some diagonally-set small squares, and this strippy one.

 

 

I began by cutting off backings from all of my fabrics, and then cutting strips from the leftovers.  Once I had some sketches and plans, they were sort of fun to make.

 





 

They are all 18 inches wide, and range from 22"-24" long, so they were fairly easy to make.

 



 

I hadn't planned on making this many, but I did two of one pattern, two of another, and three of these strippy ones.  When I thought I had finished, I found I had enough "leftovers" to make another one or two.

 



 

What finally stopped me was that I ran out of batting.  I was using the really thin Quilter's Dream cotton because I wanted these to be soft and drape-y and not at all stiff.  I ended up with 10.

 

 

 

 

I stipple quilted the hearts, but for the rest I used a technique that we used in Hawaii when we made Kid Comfort Quilts for the children of deployed soldiers.  Someone began using the serpentine stitch on their machine for the quilting and it became very popular.

It is hard to tell in the picture, but I used a delicate, pastel, variegated thread. Superior Thread's  King Tut  Mummy Dearest.

 

I love how the serpentine stitch gave the simple piecing a rather "scalloped" appearance. 

Since I had made so many, I decided to bind them all completely by machine.  I used the serpentine stitch to also sew down the binding.

I became so engrossed in this project that I'm relieved that they are complete.  My sewing room is completely trashed.  I will be spending today cleaning and tidying it up.  On Wednesday, I'm going to IKEA for the very first time!  Please tell me if there is anything totally cool that I have to look at and/or buy for the quilting room (or rest of the house.)  I have a feeling that I will be totally overwhelmed, but I'm pretty excited.

Have a great day,
JoAnne