To: QuiltNet
Fri. 27 May 1994
From: Lucette A. Williams

Mom's 2 hour Quickie Baby Quilt

Purchase:  45" wide fabric
1 1/4 yards of a cotton baby print fabric
1 1/2 yards of a cotton backing fabric--gingham is
      nice, but you can also select another companion print,
      or flannel, if it's a winter baby.  If it's gingham, you've got
      a grid to work with; straighten the ragged edges.
One crib size batting (or piece your other pieces together for
cost cutting )

(Mom suggested using bright colors on white for the print, and
a matching-color gingham for the back. I've used pastels with
solids and that is beautiful, too. I especially enjoy using
flannel... babies seem to love it too!)
  
Wash and dry your fabric to shrink it. (New moms won't be
afraid to throw it in the washer and dryer, either!)

On a flat surface (like a table, or your cutting board on the floor),
lay out your backing wrong side up. Measure about 2" from the top and
from each side. This is where you put your batting. Lay your batting
out on top of the backing; trim to fit. If you have gingham, you've
got yourself a grid, so this makes life easy!

(It'll look like this...)
    ________________________________________________________
    |                     Backing                          |
    |  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  |
    |  ~                  Batting                       ~  |

  Lay your baby print fabric on top, right side up. (This is like
we do with the Big Quilts :)  )
  Now, there are two ways to finish this.

If you're in a hurry: Fold the backing over the batting, turn in the
salvages all the way over (so that the backing fold is right up
against the top edge), turn the raw edges 1/4 inch, pin, and stich.
You can use any of those fancy stitches that your machine has that you
rarely use. Tie the quilt in a random fashion using a complementary
yarn or floss. You're done! (Since I don't have any fancy stiches, I
will just zig zag the edges; I also like to put in a double needle,
and zig zag in two complementary colors, using a third color in the
bobbin. For example, if my quilt top has red and yellow in it, and the
backing is blue, I'll use the red and yellow thread on top and a blue
that is a shade darker.)

If you've got some time:  Baste the quilt together, and then
quilt an applicable motif into it (A baby rattle would be cute,
done in complementary colors; I've never done it though! ),
then finish as above.

All in all, if you're really in a rush, it's very simple (it
probably can't *really* be called a quilt, but I don't know a
mom I've given one to who hasn't loved it!) and can be done in
short order!

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