Baby Quilts

Long ago, in a land far away (the other side of town, actually), I started making quilts for all of the new babies in my family, all "signed" (I have a fancy machine that can do text!!) with "Love Aunt Katie" and the year. I just recently finished the quilt for the newest soon-to-be baby family member (my own daughter! Eek!! And "signed" "Love Mom & Dad"!), and thought I'd take a stroll down memory lane of all of the cute little quilts I've made over the years!

Nathan - 2007

Nathan's quilt was fun because when I started, I wasn't told if he'd be a boy or a girl ;) So I just picked out "baby fabric" and came up with a theme. The theme was "I heart <3 ___" - I decided to do one shirt with "I <3 TX" because both parents were from Texas, "I <3 the Navy" because his dad was in the Navy, "I <3 FL" because he was born in Florida, and "I <3 Japan" in Japanese because that's where he was made! (His parents moved from Japan to Florida in the 3rd trimester!!) The other side would become "I <3 NJB" once I found out his initials - so much fun, I can't believe this tiny baby on this quilt is now 7 years old!!

JJ - 2008

For JJ's quilt, I came up with a random theme - "space cowboy"! I found a great vendor at the farmer's market who had some "misprinted t-shirts" that he let me have for free (!!) and I cut those up to go on his quilt. Then I bought some fun space fabric and some fun western fabric (astronauts, night skies, cow print, bandannas, and more!) - I vowed to never make letters on a quilt again because it was so time-consuming!! But you'll see that vow only lasts so long...

Ian - 2009

For Ian's quilt, the theme was "sock monkey" and I found some super fun and cute sock monkey fabric and t-shirts! His barely made it in time for him to be born!  Sadly, his quilt got lost on a fun camping trip visiting his big brother, and no pictures were ever taken!! The front side was made of shirts with fun little active monkeys doing things like playing the guitar, surfing, and skateboarding, and the backside had IAN written in big block letters.. Below are the fabrics that made up the quilt!

Josie - 2011

Lil' miss Josie's mom and I went fabric shopping together, and she wanted a fun little design to be able to hang it on the wall, so this was the first quilt that was not made with t-shirts! It was really fun to find sort of "grown-up" fabric for the family's first little lady, and it looks so adorable hanging in her room. The backside is made up of the gray and white dotted fabric, and has her initials going down one side "camouflaged" since they're also made of the same fabric, but outlined with 3 of the colored fabrics!

Ruby - 2014

Another new technique - I had my super artsy hubby, Ted, help out with the design! He made some pixel art that I interpreted with little fabric squares for one side:

... and then I made the reverse side! We had little banners on our wedding stationery, we had them hanging in our yard at our wedding, and we constantly are telling each other "love you so!" - and of course we already love our little lady so!!! We wanted it to match her room too, so the colors definitely are complimentary :)

I have no idea how well this tradition will carry on once she's here, but I'm sure we'll have at least another family quilt in the works in the future! I love all of my little nieces, nephews, and babies :D