Baby Blanket ideas
 

My niece is pregnant with her first baby. She's not due for quite a while and won't know the sex for a bit. My sister died 9 years ago and she taught me how to quilt. She made her son all his kids' baby quilts. Now, I need to step up and make my niece's new baby's quilt. After I find out the sex, what is a good pattern to make for a baby quilt? I want to make this very special since I am taking her mother's place in making the quilt. I don't want it to be super hard, but I don't want a plain one either. I want something she's cherish. Any ideas on patterns? And on colors for each sex?

First of all I'd find out if she has a theme for the nursery. Doesn't mean you have to follow it, but it does give you a place to start. I tend to let my fabrics guide me in my choice of pattern (not that I actually follow a pattern anyway, LOL)

For either boy or girl, primary colors, alphabet/numbers, are always a safe choice. Winnie the Pooh can also be for either boy or girl.

For a boy, there are some really cute jungle animals fabrics that I've seen. These are in the greens/browns colorway. Or you can always do something with bandanas and denims. I did a red, white and black quilt for DGS.

For a girl, fairies/tinkerbell work really well. I just did one that was all pinks with adorable ballerina fairies and another one with primarily tinkerbell along with some other fairies that is aqua, purple, and lime green that still needs to be sandwiched and quilted.

Texture friendly can be really nice too. . .satin, minkie, corduroy, velvet, flannel, etc.

I'm sure that whatever you do will be wonderful!

DP9 looks difficult but is an easy pattern When you find out the sex of the baby it is fast and easy also primary colors are always good. Babies see black white and red first that would be a neat quilt too.

I just made a "Baby Patchwork" quilt....just patch work in pinks with a flannel back. I am making two more because
they said you can't find a patchwork quilt for babys. All there is are nursery scenes like Noahs Ark, Animals, mother goose, etc. So, that has been a great demand here.

I saw one that is basically a strip quilt with the baby's name appliquéd on the last biggish stripe. I don't usually buy baby fabric; just colors I like or the parents like and "see" what the fabric tells me to do with it.
Good luck.

Perhaps you could model the pattern after one of the quilts your sister made for her son. My moms passed and if someone reminded me of something she did it would mean a lot, like she was being remembered with your gift. Or maybe you have a small piece of clothing of hers to add into the quilt? Whatever you do it will be loved and cherished I am sure:)

Look at her baby registry if she has one. Which portion do you love... piecing or quilting? For an easy but eye catching baby quilt, I LOVE the shadowbox quilt. you can fussy cut from one fabric or lots of fabrics. It is a great way to use novelty fabric. An I spy quilt is also fun and you can make it gender neutral and get a head start.

The Warm Wishes pattern is easy and quick to do. A rag quilt is another easy one.

One of my favorite girly quilts was a pink and lime green baby buggy blocks with yo yo's as the wheels!! This quilt was quite a hit @ the baby shower!!!

I am in the process of a 3-d pinwheel baby quilt right now with 6 pastel colors that will be the pinwheels.