Quilting A Quacker

“A baby is an inestimable blessing.” —Mark Twain

Zachary and Kiauna are expecting a baby, so I had a baby shower to go to! I asked if they had a theme for the baby’s room, and the answer to that question was baby ducks. I looked on the internet for quilt pattern ideas for a baby duck quilt, and found the cutest one!

This is the picture I got off the internet, I had to then search for the pattern.

What a search it would be! This pattern was originally featured in a quilting magazine from 2009. A quilt pattern is different than a clothing pattern. (For those of you that don’t know.) A quilt pattern would feature fabric requirements, measurements for the blocks and pieces. Most importantly this one would need the duck image so it could be traced, cut out of fabric, then appliqued.

I couldn’t find the pattern anywhere! I looked for the magazine it was originally featured in. I thought someone might have the magazine for sale somewhere. No luck.

I decided I would just make my own pattern! The first thing I did was to print the picture from the internet. I traced a duck, then blew the image up to the size I wanted. It ended up looking like this.

From here I traced the duck pieces to make my own template. You can see how small the original duck tracing was.

I needed a good circle template for the wheel on the duck, so I used my seam gauge as a compass to get a circle that was the size I needed.

Here are the duck pieces cut out. I was trying to figure out their placement, and what size block I would need for them to fit properly.

As for the rest of the quilt I chose this reproduction flour sack fabric. The baby’s nursery was green, and I liked the look of the original quilt image I found with it’s green fabric design.

I cut the blocks to make the pinwheel pattern.

Cutting the triangles for the pinwheels.

Sewing a green piece, and cream piece together.

I wanted to add a special touch to this quilt and I had the perfect fabric to do it with! I had in my possession three of Grandma Joyce’s shirts. She loved stripes, and she loved shirts with a boat neck.

As hard as I searched for the quilt pattern, was as hard as I searched for a picture of Grandma Joyce wearing this shirt. With this, however, I was successful!

I cut a small piece from the sleeve of her shirt, and used it to make one duck a little different. Can you spot him?

With the top all pieced together, it was time to lay in out. I lay down the backing fabric of the quilt, and tape it to my floor using blue painters tape. I then lay out the batting and the quilt top. I pin it all down with basting safety pins, then it’s ready to quilt.

I hand quilted around all of the pinwheels. Once that was done it was back to the floor to trim off the excess and pin the binding into place. Here’s me taking a back break. I don’t know how the Amish do it, but I always lay quilts out on the floor. Them I’m crawling all around to get them to the next stage. A break was due.

It was the day of the baby shower, and the first thing out of my bag was this cute little duck I had asked my mom to crochet.

And here’s the quilt!

All finished and looking just as cute as can be!

Kiauna loved the little contribution from Grandma Joyce. I’m sure Grandma Joyce would adore her new great-great grandaugher!

So we will soon welcome Miss Emerson Noelle to the family! I can’t wait to meet her, I hope she likes homemade gifts, I’m sure she will be receiving many more from me!

I liked the challenge of having to figure out the pattern myself. I also realize that I kind of missed quilting. When I first started sewing, quilts were all I made. I might have to make another quilt in the future, and change it up a bit.

BUT, more people in the family are expecting little ones, so I might be in for more baby quilts sews! Stay tuned!

As for me, onto the next!