Baby Girl Circle Quilts

 

My friend's daughter, Brigetta, had a baby girl in April! I didn't know when I started making a quilt if the baby would be a girl or a boy so I set about making boy and girl quilts, just in case. I know. I can always opt for gender-neutral, but I'll leave that to someone else. At any rate, I didn't go over-the-top girly or even babyish, for that matter.

And because my friend's son, Grant and his wife Robyn, are also expecting a baby soon, I made 2 girl quilts and 2 boys quilts. I've finished the girl quilts and am ready to send one to Brigetta for her wee Hannah (an especially beautiful name in my opinion).

Brigetta painted big white dots on grey walls in her baby's room so I used circles as my inspiration and here's what I came up with.

It's a bit of an I-Spy type quilt. I think the circles can potentially contain and inspire little stories, nursery rhymes, and other songs. I also think they will be great quilts for "toddler twister" games (left hand on cat ... right foot on stars ... right hand on Paris ... left foot on mountain). Fun to see toddlers tied in knots!

If Grant and Robyn have a baby girl, theirs will be the quilt with the tiny Eiffel tower on the Paris map. Grandma Pat and I share a love for all things Eiffel. 

I especially love the colours in these two quilts. I cut circles (thanks, Lisa, for letting me use your handy-dandy circle cutter) and then tried them on various low-volume fabrics but I thought it all looked a little dead so I pulled a few coloured solids that I had on hand and ... bingo! I like it. No ... I LOVE it! In fact, I have enough circles and fabric to make another one for what I'm calling the "deep vault". No pressure on my kids but the deep vault is for them even though there's nothing but hopes and dreams in it at present.

The circles are 5" and the squares are 7" (unfinished). I didn't use any fuseable web, I just laid a circle in the middle of a square, stuck in a pin, and zig-zagged around the raw edge of the circle. If I had a blanket stitch on my machine, I might have used it, but the zig-zag looks okay, I think. I pulled the loose threads to the back and knotted them, which makes it look a little neater than if I had reverse stitched to secure the thread ends.

The binding is made of leftover fat quarter strips from some of the circles and the back is a lovely, soft, brushed cotton.

I quilted "organic" (isn't that what they're called?) wavy lines with my walking quilt. This was my first time doing that and I really like the effect. I used cream coloured 40 weight Aurifil for the top and soft pink 50 weight Aurifil for the back. The cream coloured thread seemed to take on the hue of whatever it was stitched on to.

I love how crinkly and soft they are when washed up.

I recently came to have the baby crib that housed my brothers and me once upon a time. My Dad refinished it when grandchildren appeared. He even replaced the vintage nursery decals. It's so sweet. Even though I don't really have room to keep it (so far ... must clear out some crap), my heart can't bear to part with it. Current safety councils would have a fit if they saw a baby in it but for now it makes a sweet baby quilt prop. My family has famously large heads, so no risk of any of us getting our heads caught between these wider-than-considered-safe rungs, even as newborns. We're the family of adult-sized-helmets-on-toddlers ... no-hats-because-can't-find-big-enough-ones-to-fit ... neck-seams-opened-on children's-clothes-and-snaps-added-so kids-can-get-shirts-over-their-heads ... specially-made-sports-helmets ... you get the picture. This is a Kerr/Acton family safe crib.

New mom, Brigetta, was a beautiful and passionate dancer when she was growing up and I remember going to some of her recitals. When I saw this sweet little dress with ballerinas on it, I had to get it for her wee baby Hannah.

 

 Quilt Stats

Name: Baby Girl Circle Quilts (very original)

Size: 39" x 33" (37" x 32" washed)

Pattern: None - 5" circles and 7" squares in a 5x6 block arrangement

Fabrics: Various solids and prints from stash ... no particular fabric lines

Backing: Brushed Cotton (I don't remember the fabric line)

Binding: Scrappy

Quilting: Organic wavy lines using a walking foot 

Here are the boy and girl quilts side by side - 4 in total.