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.