customed designed quilt from recycled baby clothes

Happy New Year 2013!

And now I am finally allowed to share with you my very first customer quilt (not my first sale, but my first real paying big job).

I really enjoyed designing this quilt with the mother, Beate, who wanted to have a patchwork quilt made from her daughter's baby clothing. After working through a couple of sketches, I realized Beate wanted something "traditional" but also very bright and cheery - "modern."

That's the name I gave to the quilt - Trad Mod für Lilli!

It was very important to find a unity in the quilt. It isn't always easy taking old baby clothes and fitting them into a quilt. They are usually very different in color - some bright and some very soft. I found that it was simpler to use just the light colored & pink fabrics, mostly former onesies, and used stabilizer on the back so the fabric wouldn't pull when sewn together.

The best part about this quilt, is the fact that I was allowed to use really bright coordinating fabrics. I love color and found this really great fabric from Riley Blake called Apple of my Eye designed by the Quilted Fish. It has the pink in the main apple fabric and the rest is pulled from there. I simply love it. I secretly wished I could keep it myself. ;-) The backing is a cuddly flannel from Debbie Mumm called Love U Flannel for Moda. The striped binding is from the Sugar & Spice collection also from Riley Blake.

view all of the photos from TradMod for Lilli here.

Lastly, and most important, I have a very good long arm quilter, Brigitte Heitland of QD Service in Werther, Germany. She is honestly, the very best quilter I know! Her sense of style is impeccable. She came up with the the heart shaped designs which totally accentuates the theme of the quilt. She also created this really cool border quilting that does not "outline" the border strips as we typically do, but creates a new pattern.

I am always amazed to see what Brigitte can whip up with her long arm machine. Thank you so much!

If you are interested in having a quilt made from your children's clothing, please contact me. I would really love to make a boy's quilt.

TradMod for Lilli

This past week I finished up the top to a children's quilt and am really pleased with the results. My customer wanted to recycle the baby clothes from her daughter's first year into a bed quilt. We worked intensively together and came up up with with a bright and simple traditional pattern using "Apple of My Eye" from the Quilted Fish for Riley Blake Designs. I added a little "Sugar and Spice" for the binding and inner border.

 I really enjoyed working with Beate. At first I showed her very subdued pastel colors but was thrilled when she steered me back to my favorite color palette of red and turquoise! Riley Blake Designs has really fantastic fabric for children's quilts and you can basically mix and match fabric lines.

I fussy cut motifs from onesies and mostly jersey fabrics. I backed them with iron-on stabilizer which keeps the fabric from stretching when you sew it into another block.

The backing is made of cuddly flannel. Quite fitting to the apple theme is Debbie Mumms' Love U flannel from Moda. The entire quilt measures about 160 x 180 cm.

It is simply adorable!

I thought it only fitting to give this special blanket the full service, so I arranged for B. Heitland to quilt it for me. I strongly believe that Brigitte is one of the best long arm quilters here in Germany!! I can't wait to get it back and see her amazing quilting creativity.

I will post the finished quilt when everything in finished.