melted crayon art: Jigsaw Puzzle Baby Quilt (Free Pattern Included)

23 Eylül 2012 Pazar

Jigsaw Puzzle Baby Quilt (Free Pattern Included)

I was looking for something fun, easy, and a little bit different for Anson's baby blanket. I happened across this quilt, and decided to use some applique to make it easier to piece together and make it look more like a jigsaw puzzle.

I put it together in burst of creative energy I had in the last few weeks before Anson was born.

It's hard to believe that not only is he old enough to do this on it...

He can sit right up and look at me.

(And for those of you keeping track at home...that is not my yard. My yard is still just dirt. I got to my neighbors yard to take pictures of things these days.)

It's pretty small, about 35 inches by 42 inches, but it's just the right size for him to play on or tuck around him in the stroller or crib.

If you're interested in making your own, you can click here for the Free Printable Puzzle Piece Template.

I went through my stash and found some fabrics I liked in some "boy" colors.
It cut 7 1/2 inch squares out of each of them and laid them out until I was happy with the placement.

There was no particular pattern, except to not have the same fabric right next to each other. As you can see, I ended up ditching the oranges I'd originally chosen. I pinned them to another blanket, so I could fold up the project without losing the placement.

Then I traced the knobby shapes onto the papery side of Heat'n Bond Lite. (Seriously, I should buy stock in the company, I use it so much.)

Then I ironed it onto more scraps of the fabrics I'd chosen for the quilt.

Here's where it really started getting fun. I played around with those knobbies until I had an arrangement I liked. They go on a square next to the color they match. I made it so there were some with two knobs pointing out, some with one, some with three, and even one with four.

Then I took the squares, one at a time so I wouldn't get confused, and ironed the knobs onto the squares, so they would stick.

Then I satin stitched (a really close zigzag) around the edges to make them durable. As you can see, I also had fun putting them a little off center on some squares.

Then I sewed them together into strips.

Ironed the seams to one side.

And then sewed those strips together into the whole quilt. I chose to machine quilt around every other puzzle piece, so the back looks like this. The back took one yard of fabric.

As much as I love the front, the back has made such a good backdrop for photos of Anson, the back is in even more pictures than the front. I love how the blue fabric makes his big blue eyes pop out.