One for the MOPS Babies

I have been involved with a local MOPS group since 2009. MOPS stands for 'Mothers of Pre-Schoolers' and it is an international organisation. It allows mums the opportunity to meet with other mums whilst their babies, toddlers  and preshoolers enjoy time with carers.

For about 3 months this year, our three newborn-12 month carers had no one to look after. Then halfway through the year 3 new babies were born to existing MOPS mums. They spent a lot of time in their prams and being cuddled. But now they are looking to have tummy time and rolling time...the carers have started bringing their huge doona and pillows again. Now they are serviceable but not very baby-ish. Last year I determined that this year I would make them something special to lay upon. 

Late last year I found some cute panels with the 'Noah's Ark' animals and characters at 'The Crafty Lady' home quilt business. I bought 4 panels as all were on sale at the time.

Then this year I gathered as many pastel coloured fabrics to cut into charm squares. I found some at local op-shops, some donated from my mums old stash and also from some charm packs from 'Keepsake Quilting'.

I had used some of these in a custom baby quilt for one of the aforementioned newborns in June.

Getting ideas for quilts is

I sewed the charm squares into strips and attached them to the panels. I had to trim the charms to make them fit the panel both vertically and horizontally. It was a bit tricky because maths has never been my strong point.

Now basting is never much fun but when I team it up with episodes of  'Deadliest Catch', it makes it something I look forward to.

I had decided to use wadding with a high loft to give the babies more padding from the tiled floor. In hindsight I should have used a LOT more basting pins, especially towards the edge of the quilt, because the thickness moves the fabric on both sides around a lot more.

I ended up zig zagging around the entire edge of the quilt and also straight quilting about an inch from each edge. This seemed to help stabilise the quilt as I shadowed the ditch of the charm rows. Despite the unavoidable gathering of the fabric towards each corner I think that the high loft gives this quilt the softness that it needs for the purpose it needs to fulfill.

I used up some scraps to make the binding 2 1/4 inches wide. I love scrappy bindings but you need to use them on the right quilt.

I have been using the 'Red Pepper Quilts'  binding method to sew my bindings on the machine completely. The last two quilts this month I have bound using this method and had lots of success. But this time I had many spots where the binding had gaps.

I have reached the conclusion that a 2 1/4" was too narrow for the higher loft of this quilt. I had to re-sew quite a bit of the binding this time.

But I got there in the end.

The back was pieced from some up-cycled sheets.