Pretty in Pink Neonatal Quilt

Before I say anything about the little quilt, I just have to say that this picture makes me laugh so much. That is my three-year-old daughter Tess holding the quilt. (If you look really closely you can see the very tips of the kitty ears on her hat sticking up) Why I find the picture so funny is because she was SO proud to get in on the quilt-photo-shoot action. I finally made a quilt small enough for her to hold up. I'll tell you her little arms went into perfect position first try. She has obviously been paying attention when Daddy holds up quilts. She has certainly seen him pose more than once, as a Sunday afternoon family drive often includes a stop for a quilt photo.

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Anyway, the quilt is a small version of my daughter's Pretty in Pink quilt. I made this new one to donate to the local hospital as a neonatal quilt. The other night at our guild meeting these little quilts were mentioned. They won't be gathered up until April when the guild has a charity work day, but I wanted to make one now. I've wanted to make a quilt to donate to a good cause for a while and I thought this was the perfect way to start small. The quilt is just 20 by 24 inches.

It is made of 30 four-inch squares. It was fun to choose the fabrics. I love the little butterfly. I only had one square like that which I received in a swap.

Here's my son getting in on the action. My husband has my daughter's Pretty in Pink quilt which I had made her for Christmas. As you can see, the two quilts are very similar. I should say that my son was a very good quilt holder-upper too.

The binding is my favourite pink binding, Woodgrain by Joel Dewberry. The backing is a Northcott fabric.

Here's a picture of it back when I was doing the basting. I like lots of pins and I find that now that I've basted a few quilts I can put the pins in really quickly.

I quilted the quilt with my regular sewing machine foot, the same as I usually do. I don't have a walking foot. I go slow and if anything seems to even be slightly pushing or lifting, I put my needle down and lift the foot, then smooth the fabric before continuing on. I don't know if it's a good or bad idea, but it works for me and, knock on wood, so far my results have been really nice. I do all the vertical lines, then take out all the pins before doing all the horizontal ones. I quilted it with a pretty pink/yellow variegated thread.
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I am really happy with this little quilt ... so happy that I've already got my squares ready for a little Handsome in Blue version. I am blessed to have both a boy and a girl, so it only seems right to make a little baby charity quilt to represent each of them.
And now, totally off topic, here's my Snow Crow. Yes, he looks more like a duck due to the beak, but we like crows here and I have 5 or 6 that I feed toast crusts to in the morning.
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Happy Quilting!