Baby quilt
 

There's nothing like a darling new granddaughter to inspire me to finally get back to quilting. This was my first finish in more than a year. I used some stash fabrics including a Henry Glass panel (the colorful squares) that I bought quite a while back thinking it would be nice if we had a baby girl in the family. We have two grandsons and the possibility of a granddaughter seemed extremely remote, since both parents are in their mid-40's. I did the quilting on my embroidery machine using designs from Embroidery Library. The little face peeking over the top is the new baby's 10-yr-old cousin, who isn't quite tall enough to keep it off the ground, but it was going into the wash anyway. Thanks for looking.

Love the embroidered designs from Embroidery Library. Great quilt!

Sweet quilt!

Super cute. I love those panels.

Your quilt is beautiful! The embroidery designs Look fabulous!

Precious !!

So sweet. Ilove the quilt and your embroidery designs. Have fun with that new little girl.❤️

It’s a lovely quilt for a baby girl!

What a pretty quilt - so darling for a baby girl

Very cute...love the soft pastels

Absolutely adorable .

Sweet little quilt!

Just precious! (including the nice 10 yr old quilt holder!)

I think that this quilt is so pretty! the panels are cute and the embroidery completes the quilt perfectly. This is a quilt that will be much loved and played on all the time.

Adorable baby quilt and beautiful colors.

Thank you, everyone! I had a lot of fun making it, and the baby's parents seemed happy with it. I wish all the embroidery sites would give the names of their designers with each design. I was totally delighted with the little swallow design, especially, and would like to look for more of that designer's work. I just noticed that I made a mistake in attributing it. I actually got it from Urban Threads. The other designs were from Embroidery Library.

Not only is the bird cute, but it's a single run without breaks and without jump stitches, which is very important to me in a quilt. Many attractive designs are triple run bean stitches. They show up more, but can have 5000 or more stitches in one square. Those take forever to do, use a ton of thread and wind up feeling rough and stiff in a quilt. The birdie is perfect, and I've been waiting a long time for just the right occasion to use it. I'd love to be able to thank that designer, whoever he or she might be.

Very nice quilt!

I can see lots of cuddle time for you and your new granddaughter on and under this super sweet quilt. Congratulations on both the baby girl and the quilt.

A fantastic quilt and you can tell that the granddaughter will be a dearie of the whole family.

I agree that it is such a sweet and feminine quilt. Nice finish :-)

Such a sweet quilt! Baby girl will love it!

Thank you, everyone, for all the nice comments. This little quilt was a pleasure to make.

Your quilt is going to be loved by your new GD. You did a wonderful job of using your stash.

Did you find it easy to quilt using your embroidery machine? I have one but can't imagine hooping a quilt top without distorting the blocks. I am a newbie with embroidery. If you have any tutorials, please share them. Thanks and Happy Easter!

Copycat, in recent months I have had a magnetic hoop, which helps a lot in preventing distortion because the fabric isn't bent around the frame. It's much easier to work with, too. Another source of problems is the weight of a large quilt dragging on the machine. There are support structures on the market for that, but I don't have one and do better with smaller projects. I place an extra table to my left to support the quilt. I'm not a perfectionist and don't do quilts for shows, so possibly I have a greater tolerance for little mistakes than someone else might. This quilt was peculiar because the printed squares were not quite square. I had to cut the blue squares to match them rather than cut normal, precise squares. They are all off by more than a smidgeon, but I liked that print and saw no other way to make use of it. Of course the end result is that I used an exceptionally easy pattern because there was no other way to make use of that fabric without losing some of the design. The embroidery machine didn't have to go over seams, which makes it behave better. But usually seams are not a problem. The slightly rectangular shapes also made me thankful that my Baby Lock machine lets me adjust the width and height independently and has a camera that scans the hoop area and allows me to move the design into position. But even then, it's important to have squares that are smaller than the available hoop because if there's too little space for making adjustments, it can be very difficult to center designs.
One more pointer that helps me if I have a big square to center: Mark the center of the square with a washable (or iron out) pen and make vertical and horizontal lines. That helps to move the fabric into position. You can find the center easily by cutting a dowel the length of the diagonal and marking the center on the stick. If your square is symmetrical that mark will be in the center if you hold the stick either way across the diagonal. If it isn't in agreement, at least it will help you find a close enough spot.
I started using the embroidery machine for quilting in 2017, and love that method. I'm not good at free motion and find that straight stitch quilting or stitch in the ditch are not fun to do. I can't really account for that because just sitting there watching the machine quilt for minutes at a time over and over should be even more boring, but I like watching it progress, and find the process of choosing the designs to be enjoyable. I would encourage you to try it. Perhaps start with something like placemats, wall hangings or a mug rug. Look for designs that are single run because the triple bean stitches that are often used might have you changing the bobbin every 2-3 squares, which I find intolerable except in the smallest projects. Single run are much easier to remove, too. I have had plenty of experience with that.

That's very sweet. Love the dark red with the light blue.

So very dainty looking for that special baby girl.