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DIY : how many uses - cape, roof, dress, wrapping "paper"...

Homemade Lap Blanket

I am tentatively making my way into the world of quilting.  And these sweet little lap blankets are my stepping stones into that crafting nirvana.



These blankets teach me about sandwiching techniques and binding.  I’ve also enjoyed how my lettering has been coming along and I welcome some more practice with names that have curves in them.

For this blanket, I was determined to improve my machine binding.  In traditional quilting, binding the sides consists of sewing the binding on one side of the quilt and hand stitching the other side. 

Personally, I find hand stitching quite meditative and I do enjoy it, but it does require not having little girls that like to jump on your lap in any instant.  Plus hand stitching is still a time-consuming task for me, so it pays for me to practice another technique, a quicker technique of binding.

The lettering was hand drawn and then appliquéd using a small zig zag stitch.  As I chose a lettering fabric that was too close in colour to the blanket fabric, I tried to outline the letters to define them a bit better.



The flower was also a free form drawing, but this time a raw edge appliqué.  The question is, is the flower a design feature or something to correct the uncentered lettering?  Hahaha. 



As presents for children, I love these blankets.  Either on it’s own or with a book, as in this instance, I’m quite proud to present them.  I imagine that the recipient will get as much enjoyment out of it as my girls get from the one here at home.  And my girls use their blanket A LOT.  And yes, it’s time for Baby Mac to have one of her own.




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