Baby Boy Blue

Tonight I went to a thoroughly grown up baby shower. No games, coed, and desserts were served. (No alcohol, so "grown up" but not "adult." :)

I had been given plenty of notice about when it was happening, but of course didn't really think about it until it was less than a week away...Ah! what to make??

I went my standby gift (bibs-can you ever have too many?) and to my standby pattern. The first new mother I gave it to said she loved them and I have trusted her word and made them for a number of babies since.

It is a sewing pattern that calls for a front and a facing (the back) joined with binding around the edges. I really don't think two layers of cotton are going to much good against a baby armed with food so I've always added a layer of batting in between. This, of course, gives opportunity for quilting!

My first free motion quilting was on bibs for another friend:

This was in 2005. I have to say I was pretty proud of how even the stippling looked and how the animals were all outlined. It was a very nice sized piece to try out the technique, and much as I wouldn't have wanted to give a botched bib to a friend, it was a pretty low-risk situation to try it out on.

This time, since they are expecting a boy, I decided to use up some of the blue leftovers I had from my mini crossed canoes quilt. First I cut out the back and then laid it on a piece of scrap batting:

Then I cut out some strips of the blues (and one orange for pop), figured out what layout I wanted, and then started to sew them to the backing and batting with a stitch and flip method.

This is not only going to sew down the strips, but to quilt it at the same time.

Once all the strips are sewed down, you just have to trim off all the excess:

From the back

From the front, after trimming.

Then I just had to apply the blue binding and blue velcro (both of which I already had in my notions box--bonus!):

and I could call them done!

From the back you can see the quilting lines

but they are not visible from the front.

I thought this couple needed a clean modern look and nothing too juvenile. (The one on the right really makes me think of a tie; I guess it's the slanted strips and shape of the bottom.)

You can see on the left bib that I decided to change it up from straight stripes. (On some level, I must get bored easily.) But since I was on a bit of a deadline, and not interested in adding too much more sewing, I did it a cheater way.

When I was ready to add some orange, I cut the blue strip and laid it out with the raw edges folded back:

Then I laid the orange piece on top. It had to be long enough that its raw edges would be well back from the opening:

Once the seam was sewn and the pieces were flipped, the folded edges would keep any raw edges from fraying:

Pin them down to keep them in place, and you're ready to sew the next strip on:

Is it possible that with hard wear and washing these edges may expose themselves since I haven't sewn them down? Possibly, but I really don't think it's very likely.