Our Little Buddy

You may remember a few months ago when
I made a custom-lettered and custom printed quilt for my dear friend Kaelyn.
Well, doing that project opened up my eyes
to a whole new style of quilts that I have fallen in love with making!

For ease of understanding,
as of right now I am calling these quilts
“Sentimental Snuggles”.

Cute huh?

It’s where I take quotes and phrases and words
that are meaningful to the subject
(in this case our new little baby on the way)
and I arranged those words
into a design that I would then print on to fabric and quilt it.

Photo Cred: @McCall_Clark

I love these so much because they are
absolutely one of a kind,
intimate and meaningful.

They also do what a quilt does best-
keep you warm!

Andrew and I took a birthing class
when I was about 20 weeks along (a 12 week class)
and part of the class was to create a piece of art
that was inspirational and helped us remember
the type of birth experience we wanted to have.
And, of course, I HAD to make this piece in quilt form.

So…

Andrew and I came up with quotes and phrases
and things that we have said
since finding out that I was pregnant.

My goal was to have this quilt finished
before I have the baby,
and to take it to the hospital to look at it
for inspiration and as a way to stay relaxed
and optimistic throughout the labor and delivery experience.

AND I GOT IT DONE ON TIME!

(As I am writing this, baby has yet to come,
but his due date is still a few days away.)

I cannot wait to wrap my little boy in this hand-made quilt,
and later on teach him how to read
all the sentimental notes that we have written for him.
I hope he uses and abuses this quilt
and drags it around so it’ll always be there
to comfort him and keep him warm.

Here is the technical process for the quilt:

I first started on my iPad, in an app called pre-create,
where I did all of the custom lettering.
No fonts were used in the making of this quilt,
every single words is hand-drawn
by me.

Some of the quotes are silly,
and others are more serious and heartfelt.

I chose to leave a circle in the middle.
When we take newborn photos we will be able to
lay him in the middle all swaddled up and cute!

Later,
I will add his name, birthday, height, and weight
in that space.

After finishing the digital design, I had it printed onto fabric
at about 50″x60″-
The perfect size quilt for him to drag around the house
and lay on the grass at the park with.

I chose to pair it with a navy blue satin backing fabric,
so it would be really nice and soft to run his hands across
but not too hot to snuggle with.

With the quilting,
I chose to quilt pebbles all over it.
I thought Graffiti Quilting might be a little bit to feminine
but I also didn’t want to detract from the lettering at all
so the quilting for this quilt was secondary to the design of the fabric.

I used one layer of Warm& Plush batting
made by The Warm Company
(my very favorite batting to use, hands down.)

I used monofilament thread so that the quilting would
be purely textural. I’m happy with that choice.

Next, I trimmed the quilt and squared it up.

I bound the edges using the same satin fabric
that I used for the backing.
So even the edges
(which I’m sure he will probably chew on and get dirty)
are super soft to touch.

I am so so happy with how the quilt turned out!

Photo Cred: @McCall_Clark

I just love so much how meaningful it is
to make a quilt for another human being.
All quilters know how much of a
“Labor of Love”
it is to make a quilt.

Photo Cred: @McCall_Clark

I hope and pray that our baby will always be able to feel our love for him,
especially when he snuggles up in this quilt made
just for him.

I know I say this a lot,
BUT I LOVE TECHNOLOGY SO MUCH!

I love being able to use it to make things
that are so extremely meaningful to me
and to those that I love.

I love being able to design and print my own fabric!

To celebrate this upcoming addition to our family,
and to say
“THANK YOU”
to all the amazing people who have supported us
throughout this arduous journey to parenthood,

I have a coupon code to share with you all
towards all the custom printed tapestries in my online shop!

The code is: babylove25
and is good for $25 off every tapestry you purchase (no limit)

Remember, these tapestries can be hung in your home, as-is
or you can take them to your quilting machine and
make a full fledged quilt with them!

I have added A TON of new designs
and I hope that you’ll take a look and see
if you find something you might like.

Hurry and order soon!
My life is about to get a lot crazier!
hahaha

Thank you, again, for all the support
and I can’t wait to meet our little guy!

Be great to each other!

-Karlee

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