Baby Blanket Tutorial and Postponed Bead Reveal

The Bead Soup Party reveal has been postponed until April 13 so I will share a sewing project instead.

There seem to be a lot of babies this spring among my family and close friends.  When my children were born, I received a handmade flannel blanket that proved to be one of the most useful gifts.  It was so much bigger and better than the thin and small store-bought blankets and it got a lot of use.  So now I have the chance to pass along a similar gift.

My niece just had a lovely little boy and my daughter's best friend from high school has a little boy due in June.  So both have received my version of the flannel receiving blanket.  This is a picture of one of the blankets.  I apologize for the picture quality as I snapped these quickly before leaving for the shower.  Yes it did get wrapped. 

As you can see, I used two layers of flannel fabric.  I chose to use different prints and cut them square.  The dimensions were determined by the width of the fabric, typically 42 inches.  Getting the squares exactly the same size is a little tricky but don't worry because they will be trimmed later. 

I placed the two pieces wrong sides together lining them up as close as possible.  Then I quilted the two layers together with  parallel lines stitched diagonally across the entire width.  It is important to start with the longest lines near the middle and work out to the corners.  

A little trick that I use to camouflage those not so straight lines is to use a wavy stitch on my machine.  I also use the little guide bar that attaches to the foot to keep the lines an even distance apart.

After all the lines of stitching are completed,  I trim the edges to square up the blanket as the sides may slip a little in the process.  Next I applied purchased seam binding in a coordinating color.  I could have made my own binding but, of course, I waited till the last week to work on these blankets.  I machine stitch the binding to one side and then hand stitch to the reverse side mitering the corners.  The picture above shows the mitered corner and if you look closely you can see the wavy quilt lines.

So why not make one of these for a new baby and mom? 

Keep creating,
Carol