A Second Finish!

I finished the second quilt for the grandkid room. Now both twin sized beds have a quilt on them!

This week has not gone according to plan. I've had very little sewing time, so what little I've had I've worked on baby stuff.

On the left are the burp rags that are ready for washing, and on the right are the five lightweight swaddling blankets I made for DD#1. I make swaddling blankets two different ways. Both are just the just the largest squares I can cut from the fabric, usually 42"- 44". I use one layer of something really lightweight like seersucker, or I use two layers of quilting cotton or even flannel is baby is being born in a very cold location. Receiving blankets are just ridiculously small, and I have no idea why manufacturers make them that small. It is much easier to swaddle a baby with a large square, and rectangles make no sense at all. For the one layer blankets, I just hem the edges, so that's what I did on the ones above. I'll be making some two layer blankets as well, and those I sew right sides together, leaving a hole for turning right side out. Once the blanket is right side out and pressed, I use a decorative stitch on the edges.

I still have a lot more burp rags to make, and on top of the ones I was already making, I've been asked to make some for two boy babies also coming this spring. I dug out some boy flannel, but haven't started cutting those yet.

I was asked how I finish the edges of the burp rags, and my preference is ragging the edges. I sew around the burp rag twice (and once across the middle to make them easy to fold) . I then trim the excess batting, and fringe the edges. Once they are washed, the fringe will fray and the baby has a fun texture on the edge to explore with their little fingers. You could certainly sew them right sides together, and turn them. You could also use more layers of flannel and skip trimming the excess batting step. I suppose you could even serge the edges, but I personally hate the look of exposed serged edges. 

As I said, it's really a matter of personal preference. I've considered using the multiple layers of flannel instead of Warm and Natural batting as the center layer, but I'd have to buy the extra flannel, and I almost always have batting scraps around the house. I've seen people use quilting cotton for burp rags, and that I won't do. Flannel is more absorbent, and using flannel on the back as well helps the burp cloth stay in place on the shoulder of whomever is burping the baby. 

I may not be making much progress on my quilting projects this week, aside from the one finish, but the baby projects needs to be done as well. Right now life is pretty busy, and anything I get done is a win!