Homestead Crafts: Foggy Morning Crib Quilt

"When you sleep under a quilt, you sleep under a blanket of love."

That's what I'm hoping to provide for my grandchildren. Most of them don't live near us, and I want to show them how much I love them. I may not be able to hold them, but I can make a crib quilt that will wrap them in my love.

This one, though.... this quilt is for our new little grandson who lives closer to us. I'll be able to hold him and wrap him in a quilt I made for him!

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You might have read about my crib quilt project, but if not, I hope you'll mosey on over to the other posts and catch up - here's the link to the first one. Go ahead, I'll wait for you. You'll also find the links at the end of this post.

The first and second quilts of my crib quilt project.

One of my earliest memories is sitting on the floor under my grandmother's sewing machine while she worked the treadle with her foot. Sewing was her only creative outlet and her specialty was clothing. My mother followed in her footsteps. My sewing has leaned more towards decor and toys, items such as stuffed animals, doll clothes, curtains and pillows, and now quilts.

This quilt is the third in my crib quilt project. I felt ready to work on a new pattern with this one, but because I have four quilts to make before the end of this year I didn't want to choose something too intricate and time-consuming. So I decided on a "jelly roll race" quilt, which is quite simple to piece together.

I was able to use some fabric from my small stash too. Let's face it, purchasing fabric and batting for four quilts - even small ones like crib quilts - can really bust the budget if you're not careful. This one contains some strips of fabric that are left over from the Starry Night quilt and a few other projects. Our daughter-in-law said she liked grey and blue, so I had some bits and pieces that were just right.

Be warned: the jelly roll race pattern is easy and quick, but it's scaled for a larger quilt. It's harder to get the "randomness" of the strips when making a crib quilt. Plus I made it too big at first, and had to remove several strips at one end as well as several inches off one side. I did end up with two little "slices" of fabric on one side that are kind of awkward.

I used a pressing spray on this quilt for the first time. WalMart, fabric stores and Amazon carry the commercial product, but instead I ended up using a homemade alternative that I read about online.

I just happened to have a bottle of vodka in the refrigerator - don't judge me, it's for making herbal tinctures! Vodka is made from potatoes and evidently it retains the potatoes' starchy qualities. I combined 1/3 cup of vodka with 2/3 cup of filtered water in a spray bottle.

Although I haven't used the commercial spray, if it's as good as the homemade alternative it's well worth buying if you don't already have a bottle of vodka in the refrigerator.

My fabric was crisp and flat instead of limp and wishy-washy, and it was sooo much easier to cut and to sew the strips together. Viola! The quilt top was finished in almost no time.

I also used a basting spray for the first time on this quilt. There are several brands; I used Thermo Web temporary basting spray.

Here's how to use a basting spray to sandwich your quilt: I spread the backing fabric on our wood floor, then the batting and finally the quilt top.

Then I rolled the top and batting about halfway back and sprayed the batting, rolled it back down on top of the backing fabric and pressed it down well with my hands. Next I sprayed the top of the batting and unrolled the quilt top, again pressing it well by hand.

And then I did the other half of the quilt in the same way, working from the middle out to the end.

Just one word of advice: spread your backing fabric face down on the floor. Don't ask me why I think it's important to tell you that.

How did I not realize that the backing fabric was upside down? At least I can tell you that the basting spray really is temporary!

And just like that, I was ready to start the machine quilting. What would have taken me at least a week of hand-basting was finished in less than an hour, even though I had to do the backing fabric twice.

I quilted straight lines along each fabric strip, about a quarter-inch away from each seam. Super fast and easy.

Then I bought a pair of quilting gloves so I could try being a bit more creative on the borders. This quilt is so linear that I wanted to add some curves. Gloves help you hang on to and guide the quilt through your sewing machine and reduce the strain on your shoulders and back - they really did make a difference.

You can find quilting gloves at Amazon here:

medium/large size quilting gloves

small/medium

extra-large

I had fun with the borders once I got the hang of free-motion quilting.

It's not as easy as they make it look in all the YouTube videos. But my work looks ok; I can only get better with more practice, right?

Again, if you can't see a mistake as you ride by on a galloping horse, you don't need to fix it (known as the "galloping horse rule"). I meandered around the borders in curlicues and leaves and attempted a free-hand heart or two because I always include a quilted heart in each quilt I make.

I'm breathing a sigh of satisfaction that it's finished now, just a few days after our grandson's birth. I can't wait to take it to him.

What is your favorite homestead craft?

The rest of the quilts:

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