Welcome Baby Quilt

I will start this post with an apology. These pictures are CRAP! My DH (dear husband) is still in Nashville and he has the camera with him. I am taking dinner in to DH's cousin tomorrow night who had a baby this past weekend, and I am giving her this quilt. So, my only option to get it photographed and blogged about was to use my camera phone.

This was my first real quilt. I have played around before with rag quilts and such but never what I would consider a "real" quilt. The original idea was to have guest at the "Would Have Baby Shower" write on a quilt block for the baby. But, after that idea flopped I decided to have family members help with this quilt instead.

Parents helped the little kids trace their hands.

Most of the adults wrote a little something to the baby.

And other's just graced the baby with their printed name

Now, I made up the dimensions and such as I went along for this quilt. I don't know much about quilting, but here's basically what I did.

Quilt Details:

Overall dimensions: 44" x 53"

Supplies:

21- 7" x 7" squares, fabric A

21- 7" x 7" squares, fabric B

2- 5" x 37" sashing, fabric C

2- 5" x 53" sashing, fabric C

1- 44" x 53" backing, fabric B or fabric D

1 1/4 " x perimeter of quilt- binding strip ironed in half, fabric E

crib size quilt batting

Directions (1/2" seam allowance):

1 Ask family member to write something to the unborn baby with a PERMANENT marker on fabric A squares.

2. Piece 7" x 7" squares together alternating fabrics A & B. 6 blocks across, 7 blocks down

3. Attaching 5" x 37" sashing to top and bottom of quilt

4. Attach 5" x 53" sashing to sides of quilt

5. Baste quilt top, batting, and back together.

6. Machine quilt using this method

7. Bind the quilt

8. Wash the quilt in the machine to fluff it up

9. Don't forget to label your quilt so the baby will remember the occasion the quilt was made. I had one extra quilt block after everyone had signed on so the block in the right hand bottom corner is labeled to the baby.