Baby blanket

Up until recently, I haven't had a lot of exposure to babies. Most of my friends, whether by choice or circumstance, do not have children. But now I have a friend who is expecting in the spring, and I knew I wanted to make something for the wee one, and I knew she would appreciate something hand made.

While I myself am not a quilt person, I do have great respect and admiration for the patience and attention to detail required to hand-stitch such a large project. So, I dug into my fabric stash and set to work on making a quilt-like baby blanket. I say quilt-like because although I used three layers, the top and bottom are not quilted together. I suppose it's more of a patchwork blanket.

At some point I had acquired some baby-specific fabric, and used this as the backing, and even had enough left over to make some baby cloths. The first step involved cutting the pieces and figuring out the layout. Thank goodness for my quilting square and rotary cutter!



Next, I serged all the edges to ensure durability.



After all the individual pieces for the top layer were sewn together and the seams pressed flat, it was time for some decorative top stitching. Then I sewed the back and front pieces together like a pillow case, leaving an opening so it could be turned inside out, and inserted the cotton batting padding.



To finish, I closed up the opening, and top stitched through all three layers around the edge to make sure the padding would stay put. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out, but if I were to make another one, I would probably make it a bit bigger, or depending on the use, choose a thinner padding - the one I used is a bit too thick to use the blanket for swaddling or privacy when nursing. But this one is a good size to use for comfort during playtime, or in the crib.