Nursery Mother

MOTHER GOOSE BABY CRIB QUILT

Tutorial

As promised here is the pattern and instructions for making the Mother Goose baby crib quilt. This quilt is very easy to put together as it uses large squares for the background and simple applique, and easy embroidery. 

You will need:

Sewing thread

Heat n Seal (Iron on bonding material) – Lite

Fabric scraps. Cottons. Fabric can be what ever you have on hand. Old dresses. Baby clothes. Pillow cases. Sheets. 

Batting. I used an old flannel sheet.

Backing fabric. Once again, bed sheet.

Embroidery needle.

Embroidery thread.

Directions:

Step 1:

Cut your fabric scraps into 6 ½ inch squares. Find a space to spread out your squares ( the top of a bed works fine). Arrange your squares as you like using five squares across and six squares down ( total of thirty squares). Sew your squares one at a time, right sides facing to make a row of five squares across. When sewing use the same seam allowance for all your seams.

Press your seams with your iron. 

Sew your rows right sides facing to join them, the seams should ‘lock’ in together so that your squares are aligned corner to corner at the front. Sew six rows. (You can do seven rows to make a longer crib quilt).

Press work with iron.

Step 2:

Applique with Heat n Seal:

Each shape on the design needs to be cut out and using heat n seal instructions on the back of the packet cut desired shape needed. The steps for heat n seal usually are to pre heat dry iron to setting wool. Cut Heat n seal to desired shape of material or motif ( For small motifs I find it best to draw the motif on the paper backing, cut a square of material larger than motif and cut out the motif following the drawing lines.

Lay heat n Seal paper side up on the wrong side of material (All images are reversed). Guide the iron evenly across paper side of fabric. Peel paper backing and place material adhesive side down (shiny side) and guide iron evenly across material to bond. When bonding material, first ‘tack’ shapes down by pressing lightly with an iron so they don’t move, if you pin shapes, use glass head pins so the pin heads don’t melt and ruin your work.

When using heat n seal all your images once you bond the material is in reverse.

Needle turn applique

If you are using needle turn applique, cut all shapes out in paper. Allow for a seam allowance on your material to turn your material under your paper shapes. Use invisible stitching to stitch the motifs down, pulling out the paper before you stitch around all of the motif. Leave a small enough gap to pull the paper out and stitch the gap closed.

When using any needle turn applique method your image will not be reversed.

Press work with iron.

Embroidery:

Detail of the embroidery. using simple stem stitch
and thread matching the fabric.

All motifs have been outlined in embroidery thread, using three strands of embroidery thread and simple stem stitch. You can stitch right on the outline of the motif if you like, but I like to draw a line inside the image and stitch on the drawn line.

Press all work again with iron.

Step 3: 

To layer your quilt first place backing material right side down. Backing material should have enough fabric to turn for binding. Place batting down, batting should be the exact size of the quilt top. Place quilt top right side up on top of the batting. To begin quilting you can simply sew around the inside of the quilt squares using a ¼ of inch. For my baby quilt I didn’t do all of the squares. I did though made sure I stitched all the corner squares. And stitched around the entire quilt to hold the quilt down more securely. 

Step 4: 

The backing fabric is folded up into a narrow
 hem to
bind the quilt.
Then I top stitched a very narrow seam
all around.

Fold your backing material to bind your quilt. Pin the binding to hold into place as you sew and top stitch all around the binding using a very narrow seam. You can also use invisible stitch (or blind stitch) to attach the binding to your quilt, this will make sure the stitches can’t be seen.

Press all work again with iron.

The image above is the mother goose pattern I used. All the detailed is done by using embroidery stitching by hand. Use stem stitch through out and french knots for Mother's eyes. 

The last pattern is a detailed cutting plan for when you are cutting your shapes out for applique. There is a little bit of an overlap of seam to help bond all the shapes together. If you click on the image these should print out to A4 exactly. If you want a larger image take the print out to be photocopied to a larger size. Remember when using heat n seal all the images will be in reverse. On my quilt I also added in some fluffy clouds and around the quilt I appliqued hearts in various sizes. You could also hand quilt some hearts in the squares too.

I am linking up with Strangers & Pilgrim's 

Homemaking Monday's