Baby heart quilt- A Work in progress

 We took a trip to Penticton BC where I found a great quilt shop on Main Street called Poppin's Quilt Parlour. I loved the selection of fabrics they had and I got the best service from one of the saleswomen there. I found a great book on making baby quilts from scraps which I bought as well as some fabulous fabric which I will be using in the near future. :)

The book is called "Keepsake Baby Quilts", designed by Julie Higgins  published by House of White Birches.  Lots of fabulous ideas, some for beginners and some more difficult. I loved the baby quilt called "A Star is Born"  starting on page 4. 

Rows of 5" X 5" blocks ready to sew together

It says this is a beginners quilt, but I wouldn't call it that. It involves doing 12 applique blocks, which I don't find that easy, plus I found the directions to be somewhat difficult to follow. A beginner would have gotten lost and somewhat confused.

In the cutting section of the directions, it labels each part with a letter from A to J and it has a diagram, but it doesn't  clearly explain what the different parts are for.  It also leaves out a cutting direction for the outer border (made of 2 7/8 inch half square triangles) although it does mention that later, on the last page of directions.

The triangle blocks were easy to make, but the directions called for 12 pastel stars to be appliqued onto 5" X 5" yellow squares. That's a lot of edges to stitch on each star. The applique directions themselves were clear, though. 

Anyway, I decided that hearts had less edges than stars, so I made myself a heart template out of cardboard and made applique hearts instead.  I made 2 extra heart blocks to be able to mix and match better, plus you end up making 14 triangle blocks, but only using 13 so you have some flexibility. (see photo below).

Yellow inner border was added

The inner yellow border is 2 1/2 inches wide once sewn in, and the second border (white) was supposed to be 4" wide, but I only made it  3 1/4" wide as I wasn't sure I had enough white to also do the little triangle squares in the outer border.  Plus I didn't want the quilt to be too wide. The directions states it will be 42 X 42" once finished, but by narrowing the white middle border it will be  approximately 40"  square, which I think is plenty big for a baby quilt.

Once  I finish making the outer border triangle blocks it will set the quilt off nicely.

Second raggy baby quilt

This second raggy quilt has 5 inch blocks once completed. The raggy borders are 1/2 inches wide. It is the same size as the first rag quilt I made, but it has paler, more muted colors than the first one. (See last post). I have plans for a couple more rag quilts, one out of really cute teddy bear flannel and the 4th one with jungle animals, and likely scraps from the first 3. 

I LOVE to quilt! :D