Colorful Cross Baby Quilt (An Easy Way to Match Fabrics)

I make a lot of quilts with precuts, but sometimes I love to make a run to my local Joann Fabrics and whip up a baby quilt. I often spend hours wandering the aisles, looking for something (anything!) to match the fabrics I've already chosen for a quilt. Because as many of you may know, despite the amazing selection at Joann, it is hard to match enough fabrics to coordinate a full quilt. 

And so, my new solution. Choose one (just one!) key fabric. That's right, no twelve coordinating prints this time. Just. Choose. One. I went with a darling baby-themed animal print, which I used as my back plus one of my front fabrics. 

Now take your one print and match it color by color. Grab lots of solid colors or small-print fabrics that match just one color in your main fabric. I chose two oranges, a dark gray, a light gray, yellow, and two mint greens. Suddenly all your "random" color choices come together in one beautiful quilt! You can do this with any pattern, any color grouping. So have fun!

Fabric:

1 1/2 yards of main patterned fabric

1/4 yard (or fat quarters) of 6-10 coordinating fabrics

1/3 yard of fabric for binding

1 1/4 yard of quilt batting or flannel

Basic Instructions:

Cut fabric into 3 1/2" squares and 3 1/2" x 9 1/2" strips (2 squares for every one strip). Before piecing, lay out full quilt on the floor to be sure your strips and squares align properly. Sew in rows of square, square, strip. Once rows are sewn together, piece rows together into full quilt. Layer back, batting (or flannel), and pieced quilt. Pin, then quilt. I quilted each cross individually. Finish with binding.

Bunny Hill Baby Quilt

Baby quilts are one of my favorite sewing projects. They are fairly quick and give me a chance to get creative. This sweet little boy bunny quilt was actually leftover from a quilt I made 3 years ago. My friend had a baby girl in 2013, and she just had a baby boy. Hooray for matching quilts! Typically with a quilt like this, I buy one Moda Charm Pack, but here I used the leftovers of two packs that I combined. You can also just cut out squares of your own fabric scraps for the same look.

Fabric:
1 Moda Charm Pack (I used Windsor Lane by Bunny Hill Designs for Moda)
   --OR-- 48 5"x5" squares
1 yard all-natural quilt batting or light-colored flannel
1 yard of coordinating fabric for backing
1/3 yard of coordinating fabric for binding

Quick Instructions:

First, I sewed all the pre-cut squares together in rows of 8. Then I went back and sliced the rows in half longways to make the narrower 2.5" rectangles. Finally, I sewed the rectangles together in strips, 4 across by 8 down. I made three of these long strips total. Finally, I added a 4 inch white (or any solid color) strip between the patchwork strips. I quilted with a simple "follow the seams" style on all long-ways seams. Then I did a matching binding and we're done!

Be sure to use a large, flat surface to pin your quilt. I like to pin with curved quilter's safety pins.

Quilted, bound, and ready for baby!

You can see here I used a simple color-block pattern. When I sewed this I chose colors at random to make the quilt more visually interesting. The easiest way to do that is to put all the squares in a paper bag and draw at random. Then when I lay out bigger pieces, I just try to be sure like colors aren't touching.

Marmalade Moda Charm Pack Baby Quilt

Thanks for all the love on this post! It's currently the most popular post on The Domestic Engineer. While the fabric I used isn't available any more, you can use the same type of pre-cut squares in many different patterns: Moda Charm Packs. Happy quilting!

I have a soft spot for fabric. Honestly, it's more of a lifelong love affair, and well, let's just say I have a pretty large bin of fabric that lives in my house.

Ben and I were up in the mountains over a weekend in January with some friends and we came across the most darling little quilt shop. It was filled with all kinds of beautiful fabrics and the walls were covered in quilts. When we walked in, this sweet old lady served us tea. Seriously girls, she served us tea in china tea cups. I decided right then and there I wanted to live in that quilt shop. Miraculously, I made it out without spending my entire life savings. I did, however, buy a darling little charm pack that turned into this quilt.

What's a charm pack you might be wondering? Well, Moda Fabrics sells packages of fabric pre-cut into 5 inch squares (and lots of others sizes too!). All the fabrics coordinate, but they're all different. That makes for a perfect quilt! I bought the Marmalade charm pack and turned it into this quilt I found through Pinterest.

You might have noticed a quilt in my post about the baby shower earlier this week, and that's the same quilt! My friend loved it and I had such a fun time making it.

The pattern I used can be found here and was quite simple. You just match up your squares, sew them together, and add sashing around them. All the fabrics in the center are from the Marmalade charm pack. The white was something I had left over from another project, and I bought the pink sashing and the polka dot backing at Joann's. 

I decided to try a new technique with this quilt and did a diagonal straight line quilt. I absolutely love the way it turned out! For the spacing, I moved my needle as far to the left as possible and used the right side of the presser foot as a guide. It ended up being around 1/2 inch spacing. 

Of course, Eli had to help by trying out the quilt. He seemed to give it his stamp of approval.

I absolutely love the way the colors worked together! Another great bonus was that the quilt only used 25 of the 42 squares in the charm pack. I realized that means that if I buy 2 identical charm packs, I can make 3 quilts. I'm planning to buy another Marmalade one and pick out one for boys as well. If your'e on the hunt for charm packs for your own quilt, check out Moda Charm Packs on Amazon! I'm always amazed at how much Amazon sells and their quilting precuts are no exception!

Organizing Your Fabric

Every January I find myself with an organizing bug. I suddenly cannot contain myself and feel the need to reorder our entire house. We're planning on moving sometime this year, so I particularly felt the need to go through and get rid of what we don't need this year. And the place to begin? My sewing bin! Last fall, I helped my mom (who is also moving) go through her sewing boxes, many of which were mine from childhood. There were hundreds of fabrics, lots of memories, and I only brought a few things home! I realized, as I tried to incorporate the "new" old fabric into my current collection, that it wasn't really fitting any more. So, time for some order!

Here's how things looked when I began:

I've found organizing fabric works best when types and colors are grouped together. I have mostly cotton for quilting, so my strategy was to group all non-cottons together, then sort the cotton by color.

I really made a point to get rid of small scraps and trimming pieces to a manageable size. I also folded everything. Most exciting moment? I found 2 almost pieced baby quilts in my bin! Who knew?! I know what I'll be working on this month! (Pictures coming soon I promise!)

Here's the finished bin:

Isn't that so much better?! Now I can easily sort through my fabric and find exactly what I need.

And of course, Eli helped!

DIY T-shirt to Baby Onesie

I love baby onesies. What I don't love are baby t-shirts. Really, who came up with the idea to put a little guy in a t-shirt that rides up every time they wiggle? Eli was given several t-shirts at baby showers, and they've just sat on the shelf because I don't like them. Now, though, I've found a way to turn t-shirts into onesies so he can wear them!

What you'll need:

• One baby t-shirt
• One onesie that's the same size (ie- both the t-shirt and the onesie in my pictures are 0-3 months)

Begin by cutting the onesie in half. I found the best place to cut is about an inch below the arm holes. This should leave you with two pieces: a little "mini shirt" and the bottom half. My friend Joy suggested using the top to make a baby dress- I think that might be another project on my list now!

Once you have your onesie cut, take the bottom half and lay it inside the t-shirt. You'll want to be sure it's placed low enough to snap the buttons, but not so low that the t-shirt looks funny. The goal is to be able to put pants on the little guy and have the t-shirt look like a real shirt. Does that make sense? :-)

Pin the onesie inside the t-shirt, and then take it to your sewing machine! Stitch a line across the t-shirt on both front and back, connecting the two pieces. You'll want to be sure you only sew the front of the t-shirt to the front of the onesie, and vice versa so that you don't sew the entire thing together. With my striped t-shirt, I sewed right along one of the stripes to conceal the stitching. (Also, because you're using knits, there is no need to finish the edges of the onesie. But, if you want, you can always serge or zigzag the top before putting the two pieces together.)

And there you have it! Easiest tutorial ever, right? Dress your little one up in some cute overalls or pants and you've got a great look!

Eli with his aunt and uncle rocking the t-shirt and overalls!

If you make this, I'd love to see your pictures! Please post links in the comments section so I can see your creation.

Baby Bow Tie and Suspenders

For my sister-in-law's wedding, I knew I wanted to make Eli something adorable to wear. When I found out the groomsmen (Ben included) were wearing suspenders and the ring bearer would be in a bow tie, I just had to do a bow tie and suspenders for Eli. I got a few ideas from Make It and Love It, and then made it my own. Here's how to create one for your little man:

Supplies: (sized for 0-3 months)

• 1/4 yard main fabric 
• remnant of accent fabric (a fat quarter would be more than enough)
• 2 coordinating buttons
• Needle and thread

All seams are 1/4".

Here are the fabrics I chose. They're both 100% cotton, which is what I would recommend.

//Suspenders//

Cut two 20 inch x 2 inch strips for the suspenders. (For a bigger size, you could do 2 1/2 or 3 inches.) Fold each strip in half longways, right sides together, and sew down the long side. Turn inside out and press, making the seam at the center back. Fold under one short edge on each strip and sew closed.

Cross suspenders in the back and sew a diamond shape to attach them to each other. You want the diamond to be in the middle of the back. I found the easiest way to to do this was to try the suspenders on Eli and pin them where it looked the best.

While I was figuring out where to cross the suspenders, I also measured how long they needed to be and trimmed them accordingly. This is where you can customize them to the size of your own little man. Sew on buttons if you wish, and then move on to the bowtie!

//Bow Tie//

Using your main fabric, cut two 3 1/2 inch x 2 1/2 inch squares. Then cut two 2 3/4 inch x 2 inch squares of the accent fabric. 

With right sides together, sew around all four sides, leaving a 1-2 inch opening on one side. Turn right side out. Press and sew opening closed. Stack your two rectangles of fabric as shown in the picture.

Using your main fabric, cut a 1/2 inch x 3 inch piece. Fold in half, then fold edges in so that you have a strip with the seams encased. Sew along the long edge. You could also use a 1/4 inch ribbon if you prefer. Use the thin strip to wrap around your two stacked rectangles. Pull the strip tight, then hand sew the strip in the back.

//Finishing//

For a little guy, I found it easiest to sew his suspenders to the pants. If you prefer, you can buy alligator clips or use velcro. To sew on, slip the back ends inside the pants and hand stitch to the waistband. In the front, keep the ends out and sew to the waistband. I also sewed the bow tie to his shirt. Velcro or a snap would be another option.

And there you have it! Dress your little man up and take lots of pictures!

Summer Swaddle Blanket

One of the best pieces of advice we've received since having a baby is to swaddle him when he sleeps or is fussy. Swaddling Eli works miracles! He goes from a screaming baby to a calm sleeper in minutes most times. We've found, though, that basic receiving blankets are just too small for a good swaddle. At one of my baby showers, my cousin Chelsea of Pursuing the Calling gave me our favorite flannel swaddle blanket. Now that the weather is getting warmer, though, Eli is getting a little hot in the blanket. I pinned a tutorial for gauzy swaddle blankets from Dana Made It, and used that for the basis of my blanket.

Supplies:
1 yard of cotton gauze (I bought mine at Joanns but you can find them online too)
matching thread
scissors or a rotary cutter and mat

Here's How It Works:
Trim your fabric to be a square. I found with a yard, you only need to do a little trimming. My rotary cutter makes straight lines, but you can do the same with scissors as well.

Once your fabric is trimmed, fold over the edges 1/4 inch, and then another 1/4 inch for your hem. I have a serger, so I just serged the edges and folded them over. Because the fabric is textured, try to use your iron as little as possible to preserve the feel of the fabric. You can pin your edges to help hold your seams in place if you like.

Now just sew around all four edges and you're done! As you can see from my picture below, my edges turned out a little wavy because of the stretch of the fabric. It still looks fine, though and the stretch in the fabric makes for easy swaddling.

Swaddle your baby up and there you have it!