A Quilt for Amelia - A Commissioned Quilt

So a friend of a friend recommended me to make a sort of memory quilt for their little baby girl who was turning 1 this month out of some of her outgrown baby clothes.  Though I've never made a t-shirt type quilt, I thought, how hard could it be?  Especially since I would be using baby clothes and not full size adult t-shirts.  Easy peasy.  Slap some interfacing on the backs and fussy cut away to cuteness!

So I met with the momma and received all the tiny cute baby clothes that she wanted me to include in the quilt and then the wheels of creativity started to go to work!  Once she told me she wanted the quilt to be coral and gray, I thought cool - this is going to be gorgeous!  Except the clothes that she gave me to use really didn't have a whole lot of coral and gray action going on!  So....with her permission, I took the lead and decided to pair the coral and gray with some of the other colors from the clothing.  Well, 22+ fabrics later, may I present, Amelia's 1st birthday memory quilt.

 This is my favorite block on the whole quilt.  See that sweet little coral pleated center with ribbon bow?  That was her "coming home from the hospital" dress.  It darn near tore me up to cut it but I knew it had to be done.

 Some of the onesies had cute sayings but were printed so close to the collar that it wouldn't have been a very "even" block when I was fussy cutting them, so I flipped the bottom of the onesie back up and made it a virtual backing so that I could then include the sweet little collar and make some of the blocks look like little shirts for the star centers.

 I also love that she so graciously gave me some clothes & accessories that had her name or initials on it to be included.

These two outfits had graphics that were too big for the front star centers, so it was only fitting to include them on the back and not leave them out. 

Because seriously, Amelia was Made With Love.

 

The finished size was about 54" x 68".  Squares were cut 5".

Making this quilt made me really think about how much I love quilting and putting all the pretty fabrics together, but also the forever gift that I am giving to the recipient.  

I recently purchased a quilt from IG and it had embroidered signatures and dates from 1931-1932.  I can only surmise that it was a sort of wedding quilt made by family members and friends for a young newlywed couple starting their lives together.  I hope one day that Amelia's quilt is passed down through generations leaving others to wonder about the sweet girl that it was originally made for and maybe the lady who made it all happen.

I'm pretty excited to put a listing on etsy for a similar custom memory quilt like Amelia's.

Stay tuned!

Back to the machine - Jenn