I love making baby quilts and have had several opportunities this past year. This is the most recent quilt.
I had the birds left over from another project and loved the idea of a simple but stunning design. I am also not trying to compete with a nursery theme.
I learned several years ago that domestic machine quilters should not use a white on white fabric for the backing – the white printing is a plastic that will stick to the quilting surface. What I did not know is that this type of fabric can also pose problems for the top. I have had this piece of fabric in my stash for many years and thought it would look lovely with the birds as a whole-cloth, but what I did not know is that the plastic gets very brittle and is then a pain to work with. I had to change to aurifil cotton thread instead of my normal rayon because every time my needle hit one of the “plastic” stars the thread would break. It is broke a lot with the cotton thread but not every time and not if I went really slow. It also left weird black marks when the needle hit and “broke” the plastic. Bummer – because I still have another few yards in my stash.
Oh well….lesson learned. The quilt is still one of my favorites and I am sure the new owner will not be critiquing it as she spits up on it!
