NICU Quilts
"Does anyone here have any experience with these types of isolette blankets? What have been your general observations? What fabric works best? Type of quilting used? Fabrics? Did you have the fabric already or was it donated? "
My guild makes NICU quilts that go home with the babies. Our dimensions are 24" by 30" The hospital asked us to use 100% cotton for the outer layers and at least 80% cotton for the batting. The reason for this is the high oxygen environment. In case of fire cotton does not melt like poly does.
All of our fabric is donated and we test it to make sure there is no poly. Poly blends are donated to other groups so there is no waste. The guild buys the batting; we have used both Warm and White and Hobbs 80/20. I think that the Warm and White or Warm and Natural would stand up to the hospital laundry better than the Hobbs 80/20.
Patterns vary as we are often using scraps from other outreach quilts we make. If we use a mixture of flannel and other cotton, we prewash the flannel as it shrinks differently than quilting cotton. We also wash the completed quilts before donation. Some of our quilters have animals and you don't want to compromise the babies in any way.
Go for it it is a really rewarding and fun job!