Homestead Crafts: Tide Pool Crib Quilt

This year I set a goal to finish FOUR crib quilts.

I'd made quilts for a granddaughter and a grandson, but then arthritis made it difficult to quilt (I'm a hand-quilter) so the next grandson didn't get one. I felt bad that his brother had one and he didn't, but...

And then we had a great-grandson. And the news that we are expecting another grandson and a granddaughter before the end of the year. Suddenly I was four quilts behind. And if I had any hope of catching up, I needed to get busy. I vowed that I would learn how to machine quilt since my hands won't cooperate with me anymore.

Our great-great-grandmothers used fabric scraps to make their quilts, stretching the life of garments that were outgrown or had worn-out spots. I found the perfect fabrics for this themed quilt by visiting fabric stores while I was visiting out-of-state relatives, but I've added the leftover bits of fabric to my stash for future projects.


The first of the four crib quilts, "Starry Night," is finished and in our grandson's possession. I did hand-quilt that one, and it took two months to finish it. It certainly isn't done as nicely as the ones I've done in the past, but it's acceptable. After all, it's the love it's made with that counts, right? And I pray while I stitch, so the time is well-spent in my opinion.

I sewed the tops of the remaining three quilts next because I was putting off the machine quilting. I'd never tried it before; what if I ruined them? Finally I reached the point where I had to try it or give up. I didn't have two months x 3 quilts to spare.

This week I finished the second of the four quilts. And it isn't awful. My machine quilting certainly isn't perfect, but one quilting blogger says she uses the "galloping horse" rule: if you can't notice the flaws while galloping past on a horse, they don't need to be fixed. Another quilting blogger said to stand back and look at your quilt from at least three feet away, no closer. Using both of those rules, I think I did a pretty good job after all. There are mistakes, but I'm not going to point them out.

I named this one "Tide Pool" because our great-grandson lives on the coast. The fabric is reminiscent of water, seaweed, barnacle-covered rocks and sand.

I love this fabric! Doesn't it remind you of the ocean?

The pattern is the same as others I've made, although the squares are in a different sequence. I quilted it with simple straight lines using my machine's walking foot, about 1/4" from the seams, and then sewed curvy lines in the border to suggest rippling waves. There's a little hand-quilted heart in the corner, as always.

The binding is made with three different fabrics and I love, love, love it. I don't think it would look great on every quilt, but it's perfect on this one. It was done from necessity, the same way our ancestors made quilts.

Our little guy will receive this for his first birthday. I usually don't "reveal" the quilts online before they are sent to their new homes, but I don't think his mom or grandmother (our daughter) read the blog - and I didn't want to wait to show you.


The rest of the quilts:

"Cotton Candy" (no post; click to  enlarge the photo)

"In the Jungle"

"Starry Night"

"Tide Pool"

"Foggy Morning"

"Cherry Blossom"

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My hope is to inspire you, and to encourage your homesteading plans and your dreams of a simple, self-reliant, God-dependent life. You can follow me at:
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