First Fun Quilt of 2011

My daughter called me from Minnesota and needed a baby quilt for a friend.  After we discussed what they might like, I told her I had the perfect little panel and a few matching fat quarters in my stash.

I had picked this fabric up on a shopping trip with my niece last spring knowing it would be the perfect fit for someone.  It is awesome to be able to go to my fabric closet and "shop."

The center is a cute animal alphabet panel.  I had just enough matching fat quarters to make the finished size 40 x 46.  This took most of an afternoon, over half of which was used to figure out all the dimensions of the inner borders to enable me to make the outer pieced border all 7 x 4 inch blocks all the way around . . . because that was the optimal size for the few fat quarters I had.

I don't like pattern designing at all.  I am very happy to buy someone else's pattern and rapidly work my way through the measurements.

I admire pattern designers.

What on earth is this?  Does this bauble belong in this story?

Well, last week I got a wild hair in a fabric shop when I saw a jar full of these little "squeakers."  You know, the kind of squeaker that's in a stuffed animal: a bunny's ear, the mouse's tummy, etc.  Thinking they were worthy of taking home for a future project, I grabbed a couple.

So, here I am with all these cute little animals on this panel.  I wondered if I couldn't slip in a couple of these squeakers . . . just for fun.  I just happened to have a couple on hand.  Would they survive the washer and dryer? 

I made a mini 4 inch quilt (complete with batting) with a squeaker inside as a trial and threw it in the washer with some towels and then in the dryer on my regular cycle.  Hey, it never even gurgled!  It didn't sputter, it didn't melt, it didn't warp.  It's tiny little annoying voice sounded just like it did before.  I was then determined to figure out a way to stick them in this quilt!

Three layers of muslin folded and stitched to make a pocket.  This will hold the squeaker in place and soften the edges of the plastic.

 

Back of quilt top.

Then, I took this pocket and sewed it to a 5x7 inch block of muslin so it could eventually be secured with the quilting when the top was quilted.

After placing this "pocket" where I wanted it to be behind the quilt top, I basted it to the quilt top around the perimeter of the muslin.  Here are the 2 areas that I basted the muslin encased squeakers.

Here is the front after the muslin patch was basted in place, ready for quilting.  By making the first small pocket, I could place the squeaker right on the large quail's tummy.

This one is located behind the large duck on the bottom.

In the panel, I did squiggly lines in the blue grid around each block.  Additionally, there is very minimal quilting in each of the blocks, just enough to secure all the layers of the quilt.  It's very soft and puffy.

An example is this turtle--only the outline of his shell is quilted.

 Curly Minky finishes off the back for an incredibly soft and cuddly quilt.

A fun diagonal stripe for the binding.

 Everything about this quilt is squiggly, wiggly, loopy, squeaky, swirly, curly and comfy.

I want one.