Brothers out there with sisters, peep it Years and years you try to keep them a secret

I was privileged to make baby quilts for a set of boy/girl twins,  The parents don't have a genetic history of multiple births nor were they on fertility treatment so this was a complete shock!  Both parents did great especially mom who had to deal with hyperemesis gravidarum for the entire 9 months.

As the babies grew bigger and had less and less space in utero, the mother kept comparing the fetuses to monkeys as they were kicking and wiggling constantly.  I stumbled across the most apropos fabric at a quilter's estate sale.  It had pairs of monkeys hugging each other which was perfect for the girl but there was too much pink for the boy. I really prefer making gender-specific quilts for babies. The other problem is that there was only a 1/2 yard which was not enough and since it was an older print, impossible to find online.

I gave up and eventually found 2 different but coordinating jungle panels but THEN a couple of weeks later, went to a sale at Fabric Place Basement (awesome all-purpose fabric store with locations in Virginia and Massachusetts) to peruse their $2.99 sales table/. The sale had only first-quality LQS level brands but just older, discontinued designs.  In any case, they had slightly over a yard of  the monkey print.  I also discovered there was a coordinating print of pairs of bears.  

I wanted to have both pairs of animals in both quilts so I cut the stripes to have both monkeys and bears in both quilts but the alternating strips to be pink in the girl's print and blue in the boy's.  I had just enough of a 30's print of white elephants on an orange background in my stash for the borders.

Oh, but love grows where my Rosemary goes And nobody knows like me

Hey look me over, rate me a 10.  Philip my glass and I'll chug it down again

I have pictures of the babies on their respective quilts but parents who came of age during the Internet era are very cautious about allowing pictures of their minor children to be posted online.  I think this is very wise.

Said she's your cousin that came for a visit Your putting me on, is this true, now who is it?

Quilts for babies are so fun to make!  The recipients are second cousins to each as they share a great-grandparent.  Thanks to Covid, the recipients weren't able to be delivered until after the babies' first birthdays.

The first quilt is a double Irish Chain.  The baby has a VERY Irish name and the mom requested bright colors so I chose a bright floral print to coordinate with  gold and medium purple. I was commissioned to create a quilt for the older brother when he was born.

The second quilt is definitely non-traditional.  The recipient's name is Ori which is the Hebrew word for light. After racking my brain thinking of lightning bolts and suns, the bulb clicked on and hence I thought a lightbulb theme would be fun.

I modified a public domain sketch to change the filament to spell the baby's name.

I love it when you hit those switches I curve ball what my pitch is So here we-here we come Like dum-ditty-dum I keep all three ladies in stitches

This was an interesting project that includes 3 generations of first-born women.   The grandmother (generation 1) apparently embroidered many blocks that compose a childhood prayer and put them together as a quilt top.  She made this for her hope chest, well before she was a wife and mother. The embroidery is hand stitched as was the piecing.  Originally the quilt was tied, not quilted.

The mom (generation 2) also had  a different baby quilt..  Eventually it used as the batting for the embroidered quilt.  

In the 1980s, generation 3 daughter was born.  She was given the embroidered quilt at her birth and also had a cotton thermal blanket that she loved. This daughter is now a a PhD candidate at UVa focusing on American Art History.

By fall of 2020, the embroidered quilt was in rough shape.  Both the backing and the  quilt that had been used as the batting were shredded and the batting had shifted.  The quilt had only been tied, not quilted so there were lots of lumps and bumps from the batting.  Luckily the embroidery had held up very well.

I took apart the 3 layers, tried to comb/ smooth out the smaller lumps and removed the big bumps that I couldn't get to flatten.  I put in a very thin poly batting between the top  and the original batting and then added a new back.  I machine-quilted it and added a hanging sleeve.  The mom (generation 2) embroidered a different prayer on a label which I hand-appliqued to the back.

The daughter  (generation 3) received the refurbished quilt in Christmas 2020 and promptly asked if her cotton thermal blanket was also in the middle. It had not been included because mom hadn't been able to find it.  Of course daughter runs up to her old room and digs it out of some hidden corner within a couple of minutes.

I was then contacted to rip out some of my quilting so I could then add the blanket and requilt it. I was worried because the original fabrics of the embroidered top were fragile and I was afraid that the fabrics would tear no matter how careful I was when taking out the stitching. However the customer is always right and I personally love the idea of all these layers representing different generations, so I was willing to take the risk.  The mom (generation 2) made an additional label (to go with the prayer label) that lists the names of the 3 women and their respective birth years.

I love this story as I am also the third generation of first born women and my daughter is the 4th generation.  In my family, all 4 of us have the same first name and my daughter thinks she wants to continue the tradition if she ever has a first-born who happens to be a girl.  Crossing my fingers!!!

Ponce De Leon constantly on The fountain of youth, not Robotron

 

This quilt was made for a baby boy named Leon.  He was born on March 15 of this year.  His mom had bright vibrant colors for the nursery. 

As any student of history or Shakespeare knows, March 15 is the ides of March, the day that Julius Caesar was assassinated in the Roman Senate. 

The design was inspired by the 2002 USPS stamp designed by Michael Osborne.  With 3 of the letters overlapping in the words love and leon, it was an easy switch.  The N is the logo that media network NBC used in the mid 70s.

"Beware the ides of March." (Shakespeare, 1998, 1.2:103).

Carmen, Carmen, Carmen, Carmen, Carmen, chameleon, You come and go, you come and go.

This ABU Thyme totebag was made for an Air Force officer's baby gear.   The bag was designed to have bright accent colors to please Mom, yet not too feminine so Dad could lug it around and not be embarrassed.

These bags hold up really well as DOD battle uniform fabric is tough and this one is no exception.  The rank was removed from the collar and appliqued at the base of the handle straps. The various tags, awards, and buttons, remained as originally placed.  The pockets are still fully functional.

On the inside of the front of the bag, a huge fully lined quadruple pocket was added.  The military uniform pockets come from the bottom of the front of the ABU. On the narrow side, a small pocket was added to fit a cell phone.

The interior was lined with 4 different fabrics.  The front and back interiors were made from denim and and a bright home-decorator weight print.. 

The side panels were made from quilting fabrics.  The patch panel had a vertical strip of the same floral to add some color.  The Dad's unit patch was appliqued on the top. Mom works at a university so we added the school mascot (repurposed from a drink koozie) to the bottom.

The other side panel was all about the Mom.  She is a PhD candidate in the field of Biology so we designed the panel to look somewhat like a DNA strand.

 This couple will be awesome parents and their future baby will be in great hands!

I'm flowing prose to cons and cons to pros I'm like Toucan Sam when I follow my nose

 

This quilt was made for the first child of parents with very eclectic tastes.  The parents are big fans of Dr. Who and Star Wars as well as being birdlovers of the toucan species.

Making a tardis quilt took some work on graph paper but as it was all rectangles or squares, it was not terribly complicated.  Instead of pure white fabric that would have better emulated the warning sign, I found the I Love Mommy/Daddy fabric in blue shades.  It also comes in pink for girls.

 

The two upper windows of the police box revealed parrot fabric which is as close as I could originally find to actual toucan motifs.Then I discovered that Kelloggs Cereals had licensed their characters and I was able to find a Toucan Sam polarfleece which made a great backing.

 

I was also able to find a small tardis repeating design fabric for the lower panels.  It was a very stretchy Lycra so it had to be backed as I would do with a t shirt.  This quilt had a variety of different materials. The parrot windows, the planet background fabric, the Police Box sign (which I actually used Star Wars designs) are all cotton.  The warning sign and the cobalt blue are flannels.  And as mentioned before, polarfleece and Lycra were also incorporated.

You gettin' fancy gifts from expensive men You're a dog on a leash, like a pig in a pen

This simple  quilt was made for a grandmother of all grandsons who is about to have her first granddaughter.

 

 

I love Ian Falconer's  character Olivia.  Like Eloise, Angelica, Lucy,  and even Oscar the Grouch, she is no shrinking violet.

I used some of the Alexander Henry line of Olivia prints. Like the illustrations in the books, the predominant colors are black. red, and white.  Not exactly girly! I added the lollipop fabric to bring a touch of pink and used a pink floral for the backing.

Came out rapping when I was born Mom said rock it 'til the break of dawn

This Thyme Tote was made for a woman who just gave birth to her first child last night.   Her colors for the nursery were orange and blue so I tried to coordinate the bag with that color scheme.

The majority of the exterior of the bag is made from the recipient's husband's Air Force ACU shirt. The side panels are a modern print and the handles have a crazy orange motif from Hoffman. I added the rank to the base of the handles.

The fabric is a vintage 70's print so it may be older than the proud parents.  The interior of the bag is very roomy and will be able to hold all the baby accessories that these little ones require.  The large pocket is actually a triple pocket (one big one and 2 ACU ones side by side).  The smaller pocket is a double pocket made from the ACU pen holder from the sleeve of the uniform and can fit a cell phone so it doesn't sink to the bottom.  This bag is definitely not too feminine for Dad to carry. 



Riddle me this, my brother, can you handle it? Your style to my style, you can't hold a candle to it

This quilt was made for a baby who is the new little brother to 3 older sisters.  His mother loved frogs when she was a child and apparently the frog fascination hasn't alleviated over time.  She decorated the nursery in an amphibian theme.

Not a terribly exciting back:  remaining frog print and planet motif.  But both sides are bright and cheerful to help counteract the dreariness of a Massachusetts winter. The family lives in freezing-cold Massachusetts so this was given to them just in time before the nasty weather comes.

As usual, this baby quilt was machine-pieced and machine-quilted.  Baby quilts are meant to be used by babies and need to be durable to stand up to repeated washings.

Brownstones, water towers, trees, skyscrapers Writers, prize fighters and Wall Street traders

This quilt was made for the first child of 2 Manhattanites.  The dad is an investment broker (St. Mark's and Hamilton alum) and the mom is a Blue Devil grad and professional actress.  The little girl was born in the winter but I wanted to make something cheerful and bright to counter the grey that permeates NYC in the cold, dark months.

So I found NON-Eastery bunny fabric and matched it with coordinating colors of yellow, blue, pink, and green.  Very girly and fun! I used a strip-piecing method to put it together and then quilted with multiple colors of threads.

The back is interesting enough to post a picture as well. I had a little bit left of the strips and added motifs of butterfly, frog, fruit, and another rabbit. Like all quilts that I make, I added a hanging sleeve in case the recipients want to display it on the wall.

"Ready one, you will do this four times with the left, four with the right, then eight times with both, then repeat"

I don't often get to see the quilts being enjoyed by their intended recipients so I am delighted to repeat this quilt since there is a delightful little addition to the picture! 

Since Kitty Kat (no idea if her parents would approve of this nickname for their darling)  Katelyn was born on Cinqo de Mayo, she must be almost 7 months old if the photograph was taken recently.  Her mom even coordinated her outfit to match the quilt. She is too cute for words!!!

Hey Adam, this is Manisha. Hey Mike, this is Manisha. Hey Adam, this is Manisha....

This quilt was made for a wonderful PA in the NNMC Plastic Surgery Department to celebrate the birth of her new little girl.  Manisha Patel did my fipple tattoos and in general has been an excellent support in this very long reconstruction process. PA Patel is apparently named after the Hindu goddess of the mind, a very apt name for someone who works in medicine.

The quilt is a basic 9-patch with sashing.  The pink squares are from a juvenile-print flannel with little boy and girl figures.  The yellow sashing is from a 30's fabric.  The graph-paper fabric has lots of lovely creatures including purple worms (as close as I could find to leeches).  The turquise sashing has brightly colored alphabet letters shown in a puffy font.

I said "Doc, what's the condition? I'm a man that's on a mission."

This quilt was made for my NNMC oncologist who (despite looking like a teenager) recently had her 4th baby!  She and her cardiologist husband are both Georgetown Medical School graduates and I just happened to have an ancient Georgetown toddler tshirt in my stash.  I don't know why it was in my stash but it was there. I think it was bought for my oldest when she was being seen at Walter Reed at age 2. The fact that I still had many moves later it is another story...

Since this was designed to be a juvenile print for a baby boy, I added bright bug fabric as well as planetary object fabric.  These prints also came from my stash. :)

 I machine-quilted this quilt with a bright, variegated thread as seen in the close-up picture below.

 Hoya Saxa!

Kitty Kat Katelyn

My cousin's wife recently had a baby girl on Cinqo de Mayo.  I rarely start baby quilts before the birth as I like making gender-specific baby quilts.  Unfortunately on May 6, I broke my hand which made sewing very difficult. So the baby quilt was late but since the baby was early, she got it around her official due date.

The family has a couple of cats as pets, so I made sure to use a girly feline fabric as the focus.