What to do, What to do???

These are my daughters receiving blanket from when she was a baby.  I had put them in my cedar chest to make a quilt from them.  I need to make room in that cedar chest for “other things” (more quilts)  for all my future grandchildren.  However, I have a block on this one.  I usually “see” in my mind what I want to do.  I have been staring at this pile for weeks and have come up empty.  There are 13 flannel blankets (several duplicates) so it is a good bit of yardage.  Most are about 36×36 and a few are a bit bigger.  I think there is plenty pf fabric.  I just can’t figure out what to do.  I am thinking it will not be a baby blanket, but something bigger maybe for my future grandchild that might be a big older who would understand that it was made from all the blankets there Mommy was wrapped up in.  Gosh, I sound like a fruit loop!  Being that I did wait until I was 40 to have Haley, I am always thinking that I won’t get to meet her children.  This will be may way of letting them know who Grams is in case I am not here.  If she waits as long as I did, I may not meet them.

If anyone has any suggestions on type of pattern or anything to release my mind block, please let me know.  I always get such good advice from our blogging community.  Thanks!

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

28 thoughts on “What to do, What to do???”

  4. I love those fabrics together – mostly low volumes with the medium volume yellows, pinks and the blocks fabric. Whatever you do will look awesome. And yes – I think NOT a baby blanket – because the baby won’t care.

    Maybe a single bed sized quilt made from mom’s blankets to be given by mom (from you) when your grandbaby moves away from home (to college?). That would be all kinds of homey.

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  5. Maybe cheesy or difficult, but I would try to make an old fashioned baby carriage out of the blankets and outline it in white or some other color and contrast a background color and ruffle the outside border around all of it for a keepsake for her or wall hanging or gift for future grand baby or something. Just what popped into my head… lol 😄❤

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  7. I rather like Tracey’s idea (above) using large squares of the flannel as background and then doing some colourful embroidery or quilting in bright threads.

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  8. Because of the colors and fabric, I agree with a baby blanket. I’m always low on inspirational ideas, but if it were me, I’d match either the darkest pink, the blue, or the gray in a flannel solid as cornerstones in horizontal sashing of a matching white or porcelain flannel, and just do simple blocks of the patterns with vertical sashing in between. That way the patterns aren’t competing with each other and the solid cornerstone gives the eye a place to rest and make sense out of the busyness of all the different patterns. The two yellow & pink would make a nice border if you can match the plaid and use the cornerstone color as the binding. And yes as Deb said, Minky on the back. Now I’m sorry I didn’t keep all of my son’s receiving blankets. What a sweet grammy you’ll make!

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  9. Lori, flannel can stretch a lot when cut in smaller pieces (lesson learned by me!) so I might use a pattern with larger pieces. I have made some flannel quilts and some cotton quilts from the book “Thimbleberries – Oh Sew Cozy Flannel Quilts” and they turned out really nice. This book might be a good resource to help you develop your thoughts. I think making a quilt is such a wonderful thing to do with those precious little blankets!

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  10. Flannel is very difficult to work with – experience here! Is there anyway you an take each blanket and trim them to squares like 30″ x 30″ and then select like colors and make lap quilts out of them? I agree with Gray Barn Designs, cutting it into squares, etc will be a nightmare. Quilting would be worse.
    Maybe you could store them in boxes with special paper and keep them for your future grand baby.
    Hugs

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  11. I like Tracy’s idea of embroidery, too. And having worked with it, I know flannel can stretch a lot. So if you cut 6 or 8 inch squares for embroidery, maybe put a fusible stabilizer on the back to keep them from stretching. They are not usually hard to stitch through. Pellon makes two or three different ones.

    One of my favorite quilts is a flannel and the pattern I used was Yellow Brick Road, which does have varying sizes of squares and rectangles. I didn’t have a lot of trouble with it. The only thing I would recommend is binding in regular double bind cotton. I bound with the flannel, and I’ve used the quilt quite a bit. most of it isn’t worn at all, but I can see, a decade later, that the binding is going to go before long. It is already thin in spots.

    Or cut a large square to embroider something (teddy bears or several different animals?) in the middle, and then use other fabrics as large HST to make a sawtooth star around that center. Use another one for the corners. You could make four of those, maybe 2 yellow and 2 pink stars, and put them into one larger quilt. That would be 72″ square, if you used an 18″ center and 9″ HST and corner squares. The pieces wouldn’t be tiny. The embroidery should still have the stabilizer.

    I look forward to seeing what you do with these! (You know she will only have boys, right? LOL)

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  13. I just found your site and love all the ideas for a older child quilt. I always make a baby quilt for baby coming home and the first months and one big enough to go on a toddler’s bed using the same pattern and fabrics. Sort of lap sized and a little longer. That way the child has something that can go with them to their big kid bed. Makes the move to a bigger bed from the crib easier. Then the small one can be used on a dresser as a changing mat or on the wall. I also make the parents promise to let the kid play on, poop on, drag around, make forts, and generally destroy the bigger quilt so I can make a new quilt to love to death when they wear this one out. The little one is for the keepsake box if they want to start one.
    As far as patterns go the last couple I’ve made is very simple. Pick a focus fabric and 3 plainer fabrics. in your case a new (well washed) fabric is the child and the blankets are yours and their mom’s love encircling them. Make rails of the 3 fabrics cut to the size of square of the focus fabric. For example 6 1/2″ squares would mean 3 – 2 1/2″ x 6 1/2″ strips for the rails. Alternate a square with a rail horizontaly in one row and the next row is vertical. Repeat. Each square should have the same color outside rail surrounding it. I know the directions sound a little weird, but lay out (or graph out , or use EQ) 2 or 3 rows and you can see the pattern. Nice, easy and non gender. I use this pattern for alot of the charity quilts I make.

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