Good Morning all! A friend and I are planning a new baby quilt for an expecting mother. We have this idea of elvish Rivendell (lord of the Rings) inspired quilt. We found a pattern we love, but are concerned about fabrics. Our dream is to use green velvets and gauzey silvers. Can anyone offer their experience with using such different weight and texture materials? Are there special treatments we should know about ahead of time?

Thanks to all you excellent quilters! It's inspiring to us newbies!

Shaminey

I have not worked with mixed fabrics in a quilt before. Hopefully someone else can help you better. I would probably just make it in 100% cotton and then back it in flannel or Minke and maybe even bind it in a Satin. You can find some shimmery silvers from Michael Miller, it is called Fairy Frost. Sorry I wasn't a whole lot of help
Welcome to the board!!

I would use soemthing besides velvet if the quilt is going to get a lot of use. Maybe polar fleece or flannel or even minke, but not elvet. I am not an expert simply expressing my opinion. If you want a shimmery fabric, look for soemthing in a 100% cotton and prewash everything to ensure even shrinkage. Good luck.

I have ready your interesting idea and The Lord of the Rings sound very different, however, guess your waiting on the however, I personally would not use velvet for a baby quilt. It will not stand up to the frequent washings a baby quilt will need. Also velvet has a pile much like fur and needs to be cut all the one way or it will look odd. Not easy when you are working with small pieces of cut fabrics.

I am meaning this to be constructive and hopefully you will find some of the many beautiful and innovative fabrics out there that will give you just as nice effect as velvet and stand up better in wear.
Good luck

Elle

Hi and welcome from Mass. I too would not use velvet for a baby's quilt. You need to dry clean the quilt.

I love mixing fabrics for wall pieces. I wash thoroughly first, and use a lot of stabilizer. I would not reccommend them for bed use, especially for a baby who could chew on them. Also, baby stuff "should" be fireproof, and those lovely gauzy things burn right up.

Are you making this baby quilt to be used or to hang on the wall? If you plan to have it be used I agree with all the above comments. Also, no matter what shimmery fabric you use it will be scratchy on baby's tender skin.

Maybe turn your idea into a wall hanging and that leaves you wide open for all sorts of textiles.

I made a Christmas tree skirt using cotton and gold lame.. the lame kept fraying.... where it is so shimmery and lightweight, I had to fuse fusible interfacing to the back of it. But it turned out very nice and its been washed many times. Every time we take out the Christmas linens, we also wash and freshen up the tree skirt too where it was stored away for 12 months :) I'm not sure though if lame would be good in a baby quilt providing it was very well sewn and no frays showing. It is also not the softest material for a baby quilt.

Moonpi makes alot of valid points there... Lame might not be the most fire retardant friendly.... so delete the above note... lame is good in anything besides baby quilts :cry:

Sounds like a really unique choice. Im afraid Im with the others though, and wouldnt think that velvet and gauzey fabrics would withstand the washing required for a baby quilt.

However I reckon you could get leafy or wooden patterned cotton fabric fairly easily, and some printed cotton fabrics do almost look textures, and so would be a good replacement for the velvet. Then to make the LOTR theme have you considered using the fabric stuff that you can print your own pictures on? Im sure there are plenty of pictures or whatever that you could print out, and I understand (though someone might correct me) that it would probably wash a lot better.

Whatever you decide I certainly hope you post a picture when your done!