5.27.2009

Rissa's Quilt





I made this quilt for a friend who just had a baby and wanted the baby's theme to be pirates. The finished size is roughly 45"x55". I believe in big baby quilts.

The first fabric I found for this quilt was the blue pirate print, most visible on the outer border in this picture. It was flannel, and while I hadn't set out to make a flannel quilt, the print was perfect. There didn't seem to be many options in cotton pirates, so flannel pirates it was!






Each block is a little ship. The aqua fish print in the lower left corner is the water, the red stripe is the ship's hull, and the upper two triangles make up the sails. The blue pirate print sail is the fabric I first found for this quilt.


I machine quilted a skull and crossbones design into each block to give individual blocks more attention. Looking at the whole quilt, the red begs for attention so I wanted to put more focus into each ship block. An overall quilting motif would have blended the blocks into each other even more.



The skull and crossbones quilting is also visible here towards the left. The black print is the back of the quilt with my label in the corner. I embroidered the label by hand.

I machine pieced and quilted this so it could withstand going through the wash often.

Having made this following my huge king-sized quilt, it seemed to go quickly. Of course, this is only about a quarter of the size of the bed quilt. I cut out the pieces in late February but prom season interrupted all sewing-for-fun plans. I pieced, assembled, quilted, and bound the quilt in just a couple of days once I had most of the prom dresses finished and out of the house. I mailed it the day before the baby was born, which is good timing considering most of the quilters I know have baby quilts still in progress for babies turning 2 or 3 years old.
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5 comments:

  1. Oh my gosh! That is beautiful!!! I'm not sure I understood all the quilting terms, but I'm so impressed by the Jolly Roger quilting.

    You're making me want to try to quilt. I have no time!

    :o)

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  2. Ditto to what JP said. In about one more month you'll find out why I have no time!

    It's almost enough to make me want a baby. But having a baby to get a cool quilt probably isn't the best idea...

    ;)

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  3. Not to try to convince you to quilt or anything, but it is loads of fun! I am always anxious for summer when I have time for both alterations and quilting. It's definitely one of my favorite hobbies.

    Only one more month to wait, Bib? :D

    You're right, I'm sure -- having a baby just to get a quilt isn't such a good idea. Give me a theme or favorite colors and a few months, however, and you could have a cool quilt anyway.

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  4. the quilt pretty much rocks.. keep up the good work!

    and, for the record, i'm still awaiting those trap-door onesies.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks! But you're still not getting trap-door onesies. :P~~

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