Featured Quilt of the Week - "Baby's Beach Blanket"

This is one heckuva time of the year to be featuring a baby quilt with this particular name! Here in northeastern Minnesota it is currently -10° as I write this. Perhaps I should temporarily rename the quilt "Baby's Close-to-the-Heat-Source Blanket."


Regardless of what we choose to call it, this is a very colorful quilt, and I remember the fun I had selecting the fabrics that resulted in this great scrappy look.


The measurements are 37-1/2 x 43", and I quilted it using diagonal cross-hatching with wavy lines in the borders.


The backing fabric is a rich yellow-gold with small red and blue flower heads.

Where did the design for this quilt come from? Well, I have a favorite book called "Around the Block Again, More Rotary-Cut Blocks from Judy Hopkins." It contains instructions for making a myriad of blocks (about 200 of them) in many different sizes, from 4" to 14". Because I really enjoy working with the old, traditional block patterns, I use this book a lot. In it I found the block I used in "Baby's Beach Blanket." It's a simple one called "The Friendship Quilt" block. Most likely, the block was first designed so that the women involved in making the quilt could sign their names in the blank center square with perhaps a message for the intended recipient of the quilt.


But just look at the interesting things that happen when you line several of the blocks up horizontally and vertically. New designs are formed six ways to Sunday! What fun and eye appeal.

So whether this baby quilt is spread on a warm, sandy beach for a little one to play on or whether it's main purpose is to be wrapped around a wee babe to ward of winter's chill, it will do the job quite adequately . . . and maybe even become a treasured possession to be passed on down to a younger sibling in the future. Nothing would make me happier!

You can read more about this quilt and others I have for sale on my website,
Mama Pea Quilts - Handmade Baby Quilts.

Hope you all have a good week!