Custom Pattern Baby Quilt

For my niece’s first baby, I combined my love of hand quilting with fabric pattern design to create a one-of-a-kind gift. My idea was to illustrate and custom-print fabrics that celebrated the family’s love of the outdoors. And because it was all bespoke, I was able to coordinate the colors of the quilt with the forest greens, browns, and blues that were used in baby Sedona’s nursery.

The project presented a new challenge, as I’d never created a set of quilt fabric patterns. It took a bit of trail and error—and a few sample orders—to get everything right. Balancing colors and scale for each pattern in both a single hexagon as well as how it fit into the quilt as a whole stretched me in new ways.

In the end, I created more than a dozen original patterns for the final quilt. They featured forest animals, mountain vistas, quirky toadstools, and even the family’s own pets. The quilt was made using the English paper piecing method, which is slow but rewarding as I got to coordinate how each piece fit to the ones near it, and grow the quilt organically. After a few months of sewing and the iof an upcycled orange star sheet on the back, Sedona’s quilt was complete.

Sedona with her finished quilt

The patterns included a mix of hero prints, simpler stripes and repeating patterns, as well as coordinating solids

Detail of the finished quilt

Many of the prints were made in various colorways and scales to add interest and help bring the entire piece together

Three of my favorite patterns, including oak leaves and acorns (left) and bear faces (right), as well as illustrations of the family’s two dogs and two cats (center)

Quilt detail

Happy baby