Eclair

In the spirit of giving welcome baby gifts to 6-month-olds, here's a little something I just presented to a pretty little girl named Emma-Clair, who is so sweet she's cream filled.   And they call her "Eclair."  And I think that's just about the cutest thing ever. 

So I added a little eclair applique,

which Miles really liked.

That's his grubby hand right there, trying to pry it off the blanket.  Don't worry.  I stitched it on tight.

 

Like practically everything else that comes from my craft room, the story of this quilt began in the clearance bin.    I needed some new blades for my rotary cutter, and happened upon a chenille cutter marked down 75%.  I had no idea what I'd do with a chenille cutter.  But I knew it was cheap, and I figured it could cut fabric, so I brought it home with me.

Not long after that, I happened upon this tutorial on Aesthetic Nest, and suddenly the instructions that came with the chenille cutter made a lot more sense.

So here's how it works.  You layer several pieces of flannel (or other soft cotton)  and then stitch in parallel lines on the bias. 

Then when it's all stitched up, you use your chenille cutter to slice between the stitches.  And then you add embellishments, or whatever, and then bind it.  Then you throw it in the washer and dryer, and all the raw edges you cut curl up and get fuzzy.  The more you wash it, the more it curls.

The process is a little time consuming, but it's straightforward.  And actually kind of fun.  I used a set of flannel receiving blankets, so the finished quilt is pretty small.  I don't think I'd want to tackle anything bigger, cause I'm lazy, and even turning this little thing under the arm of my machine was a little cumbersome.

I do have one little tip I didn't see mentioned in any of the online tutorials I found.  Dana at Made (see her version here)  suggests changing your needle position to get the lines spaced evenly about 1/2 inch apart.  But I can't adjust the needle position on my machine, my presser foot was too narrow to use it as a guide, and I didn't want to have to draw lines to follow for the whole quilt.  So I added a piece of stiff tape to the bottom of my presser foot and lined the edge of the tape up with the previous line as I stitched each new row.    Like so:

After a while the tape started to curl up, and I'll admit I rushed things a bit, so the rows are not perfect.  There are other flaws too, but I won't bother pointing them out, because if that cute baby Eclair is anywhere nearby, I guarantee no one's gonna notice a few wonky lines and errant stitches.  They'll be too busy tickling her cream-filled belly, or gazing into her gorgeous chocolate eyes.