Tag: quilting

Here’s a fun project I did back in February, 2013, when my daughter was expecting my now 3-year-old grandson, the youngest of my fabulous four.

When my daughter was a child, she had a room full of stuffed animals. It seems neither I nor any of her other close relatives could resist a cute piece of fluff, so somehow she ended up with enough to make her bedroom a menagerie! Still not able to part with this sentimental part of my only little girl’s childhood, after she left home, I stuffed all of them into about six good-sized storage bins and moved them to the attic. I assumed, of course, that her children and her nieces and nephews would inherit these priceless treasures, but that didn’t happen. By the time the grands began appearing, their parents received enough stuffed animals as gifts that they didn’t even want to hear about “inheriting” any more. Then there was also the fact they by this time were several decades old and had spent quite a few years in the attic (in Florida).

Okay, so giving them to the grands was out, and I was really over seeing those big bins sitting in my attic, so what to do? I couldn’t bear to part with them completely, so I had the brainstorm of making them into a keepsake that would be useful and welcome; hence, the treasure quilt!

Treasure Mountain

Step One: Dump all the storage bins onto the dining room floor
This is where it all began! I did select a couple of especially nice ones to wash and give to my granddaughter, but then I started in with the seam ripper on the rest of them. I removed all the stuffing from each one so that I was left with just the exterior fabric. Here it is, ready for the washing machine!

And here it is cleaned up and ready for the real work to begin.

Cutting and Planning
I have a favorite baby quilt pattern which I made from a quilt given to my daughter when she was born. It’s a sleeping teddy bear with a blanket pulled up under its cute little chin. I’ve used the pattern quite a few times, modifying it over the years, and it perfectly fit this project.

I kept one particularly cute teddy bear face whole and then cut the rest of the fabric into 4.25” x 4.25” squares to make Teddy’s quilt. Obviously, I wasn’t able to incorporate every scrap of fabric since only the larger parts of each one (with no seams or curves) would yield flat, 4×4 squares, but I got enough to do the job. Also, some pieces had writing I wanted to keep; so as you’ll see, I had a few double squares. Here it is all cut and laid out.

Sewing
The next step was to machine stitch all this together to make the top.

Whew!!! That was the hardest part! Sewing fuzzy fabric is a bit of a challenge, but there it is. Then I used purchased cotton fabric to make the sheet Teddy is lying on and blue fleece to make the border and the back. This is the completed top.

Now the only thing left to do was attach the batting and the back and finish with knots. The first photo shows the completed quilt, except for the knotting.

I should have mentioned at the beginning that I am not a professional level quilter—not by long stretch! But family treasures don’t have to be perfect. This was just so much fun to do, and the greatest fun of all is snuggling under it when I visit Seattle. It is sooooooooo cozy!!!