All Aboard!!! - February 2009

Note to Reader. As I’ve said a hundred times before, I really don’t feel like I am a crafty person, but once again I’ve boarded the crafting short bus and produced something far too cute not to talk about.

In an effort to save money, since we have a million friends getting married and having babies this spring and summer, I decided that I would try to make at least the baby gifts. So I started searching the blogesphere for crafts and I didn’t have to go far. Back in August, one of the blogs I follow, SabbeSpot did a tutorial on an Easy Baby Quilt and I thought to myself, “Self, you could do this!”

So after spending 4 hours with two of my BFFs, at the brand new Jo-Ann Fabric and Crafts, picking out my fabric, then chickening out and putting it all back, and then forcing the Hub to go out there again a week and a half later to get what I’d chickened out on and put back, I had all the tools necessary to finish this project.

Additional Note to Reader: I need to say that although I got the idea for the project from Mrs. Sabbe Chic I did take a few creative liberties to put my own spin on it.

I used the following
1 yard x 42” Printed Cotton Fabric (Large print old fashened trains)
1 yard x 42” fleece (Red Tie Die Fleece)
NOTE: Prewash and iron all of your fabric. (This prevents it from doing funky stuff when you wash the assembled blanket for the first time.)
1 yard x 42” quilt batting
2 packages of COTTON Double Folded Bias Tape
1 spool of COTTON thread (color should coordinate with the tape)
1 package of 6 thread string.
1 can of spray adhesive

Step 1: Sandwich the batting between your fleece and printed fabric and pin. (I used a spray adhesive that really helped keep things together till I could get it all pinned)

Step 2: Sew around the outside of the fabric joining the top print and the bottom fleece together.

Step 3: Take the double folded bias tape and pin it around the edges that you just finished sewing.

Corners and Junctions
The corners were a little tricky. I folded and pinned them instead of cutting and sewing them back together. Either way works just fine. Since my blanket was a little bigger, I also had to join two packs of Bias tape together. HINT: A trick I learned half way through was that it was a lot easier for the machine to go over the corners and junctions if I pinned it going the same direction I was sewing.
Step 4: When you have everything pinned, begin attaching the bias tape. Try to sew as close to the edge as you are able, maybe a quarter of an inch) Make sure that you are covering the stitching below on the top and underside of the blanket.
The final step is to knot the blanket.
Step 5: I first cut a piece of the 6 thread string that I felt was long enough to do all the knots and used a needle with a large enough eye to fit the thread. HINT: Make your knots by making one stitch from top to bottom and then back to the top. Tie a square knot and clip the remaining string to leave a quarter of an inch or less of length.
NOTE: Your batting will indicate how far apart the knots need to be. Mine were every 5 inches, so I alternated spacing so that every other row lined up and that alternating rows were in the middle.

That’s all there is to it! It literally took about 5 hours start to finish, but it must be said that I am a novice sewer and wrestled with setting up my machine for 1 of those 5 hours. I hope the mommy, daddy, and baby like it.

Giving Credit Where it’s Due:
I have two people to thank for the completion of this project.

One is the rockin’ sales assistant at the Jo-Ann Store who prevented me from buying the wrong thread, the wrong binding, the wrong batting, the wrong material to do my ties, and pretty much everything except the fabric that I had to swap out because I’d gotten it all wrong.

Second is my friend Sarah, without whom I would have never gotten past threading the bobbin wrong. To you both, Thank You! Thank You!! Thank You!!!
I am so happy with how well this turned out and I am inspired to make a few more for some deserving mommies and babies. In fact, the hub liked it so much that he has requested one in camouflage!!!

Till next time,
Bon Voyage!