Charming Charm squares

I have really been enjoying looking through my scraps,strips and squares to find inspiration to make more premature baby quilts. The quilts are fun to make and it's lovely to get the creative juices flowing , finding ways to use up scraps that have languished in my stash for far too long.

The 6 quirky 4" squares are a good example of what I mean!  They have been in my Squares stash for so long I can't even remember where they came from. There were actually 7 of these Charm squares so I still have one left over! Quite cute pictures which I framed with strips from my Strips stash.
A while ago I won a Giveaway and ordered a few metres of fabric that could be used for bindings ( my favourite spots and stripes). The turquoise one with white spots was the fabric I chose for the borders and also the backing of this little quilt. The binding is aqua Kona Cotton also from stash.

The finished quilt measures 16" x 20".

 

Linking up with Nicky's Mrs Sew & Sow's Scraptastic Tuesday - November Link Up

Another 2 quilts gifted

Last Sunday our neighbours became grandparents for the fifth time. Another girl, making five little granddaughters in all.  Lots of pink there then!

I felt this baby would also be a girl so I had made a very 'pink' quilt some time ago.  However I did recently make a 'boy' one but that has now been put away in my Finished Quilts cupboard.

So, this is the quilt I have gifted to baby Norah:

 

 

 

 

Ana this Ticker Tape Doll quilt for her 2 and a 1/2 year old big sister, Eadie:

 

 

Apparently Eadie loves to walk her baby dolly called Mollie in her doll's pushchair so I think this little quilt will get well used.

Tiny premature baby born

Life never ceases to amaze me.
On Thursday morning last week  my Group made little quilts to gift to the premature baby unit at our local hospital. On Saturday I learned friends in our town had become grandparents - far too early at 28 weeks - to a tiny premature little boy, Nathan ( Gift from God).
Nathan was actually born very late on Thursday evening, just a few hours after our Workshop.
I had completed three little quilts by then so decided to gift one of them directly to tiny Nathan.
I also added two lemon premature baby hats I had knitted some months ago, intending to pop those into the hospital with my next lot of little quilts.

I chose this bright frog quilt to gift to Nathan and hope and pray he pulls through. 
At present he is holding his own but is very tiny at around 2lbs in weight.  I have seen photos of him and he is unbelievably tiny, fitting into his Daddy's two hands cupped beside each other.
Please hold baby Nathan in your prayers.

Premature baby quilts Day

At our group meeting last Thursday we made Premature baby quilts.
Lynne started the group 20 years ago and I have belonged for 19 years. Every now and then Lynne organises a Workshop at her house.  In the past we have made tote bags, a lovely drawstring bag with outside pockets, a scissors case and even tried Foundation piecing.

Lynne had been clearing out a cupboard and had organised her scraps into pieces large enough for backing, and strips, squares, larger strips, orphan blocks, thin strips etc.  She had set out a cutting station, an ironing station and displayed her scraps in areas so we could mix and match to make premature baby quilts. Our local hospital requests they are 16" x 20" so that was what we made. Seven of us, happily sewing and chatting and enjoying the delicious coffee and cake supplied by Lynne.

What fun we had, delving into her scraps - always more interesting than your own!  Lots of chatter and new ideas tried by some members. Our newest member had a great day, learning so many new things. We all put together one little quilt, some completed two and then they were taken home to hand stitch the bindings.  Every one was completely different.

Here are my two:

 

 

This one used 6 of Lynne's orphan blocks. Nice and bright with their cute frog centres. Lynne and I have a similar taste in fabrics.  I bought a strip of these froggy pictures a few years ago and made a baby quilt for my friend's grandson with most of them.  It was a very quick quilt to assemble as most of the work was already done. I added a simple green and white gingham border from strips which had already been pre cut. Quilted on the machine but I did add a line of hand quilting with Perle thread around each frog centre which made them stand out more.

The second quilt was also quick to make. The centre piece was a larger scrap which was pretty much the right dimensions.  A flowered piece was cut in two and added to each side of the centre houses strip.   A narrow border top and bottom made the quilt just the right size. Again, machine quilted.

 

Of course we barely made a dent in Lynne's scraps!  There were enough left for us to have many more Premature Baby Workshop Days.

 

I so enjoyed making these little quilts I had another sewing day at home on Saturday.  I finished another one and have three more in various stages.

 

Here's the 3rd finished quilt:

 

 

The four animal pictures were in a strip which I have had in my stash for years - gifted by a friend who was sorting out scraps prior to her house move. I have never been able to find the right project for it until now. I cut up the strip of pictures and framed them with strips from my stash of scrap strips.  Two 3.5" froggy fabric strips were added as top and bottom borders and the top was done.  I even used leftover binding scraps to make the scrappy binding.

 

We hope to gather together all the completed quilts at our Patchwork Group meeting on Thursday so I hope to get more photos then.