quilt help needed

[quickdrawmcgraw]

I want to swallow my sewing fears and make 2 quilts for dcs. I want to make them out of squares of their favourite old baby clothes that I held onto.
Is there anything I need to know before I start seeing as all the fabrics will be different types. A mix of stretchy cottons and possibly some denim.
Should I sew them all together first, sew a large piece of material on the back and then put some wadding in the middle?
I'm just typing as I'm thinking here. I'm imagining the quilt Susan Saradon made for her dd in Stepmom but maybe not on such a big scale. I'm such a wet I'm usually balling too much at that bit of the film to look at it closely.

pre wash all the fabrics as they will all shrink at different rates...good luck i mde them for my first 2 dc, dd2 is still owed one, can't seem to find the time....

xposted with fio

quilters of mn unite

Thanks, clearly prewashing is the thing to do.

i'd use a fusible lightweight woven interfacing on the stretch fabrics, to stabilise them. i plan to do this eventually - when we finish handing down. i'd do something with wide sashing in one colour, prob white, inspired by this one.

ooooh puppydavies! I love it! I like the idea of spacing out the baby squares. I'd imagined I'd have them all in the middle and fill the outside with one colour because I wouldn't have enough for the whole quilt but that arrangment is much nicer. I'm getting excited now!

i think a coin quilt arrangement looks good too, like here. did you click through from the baby clothes quilt caption to the blog? there are pictures of oscar in the different outfits from the quilt [gooey]

hillary lang? she's pretty much god in some circles i like the fact she's not afraid to have a go, she only picked up quilting quite recently iirc.

You could also consider using a flannelette sheet in the middle of the quilt instead of wadding - it makes them very much more snuggly.

I use a sheet as "wadding" for all the quilts I make for children.

There's a nice easy pattern here - it's not in colour, but you could cut your children's clothes into strips instead of squares.

Or you could try this one - it would look good with a scrappy finish, I think.

Didn't realise there were other quilters on mn!

I've used (expensive) cotton wadding (not so bad if quilt) is small but wouldn't touch the cheaper ployester stuff in a fir.Have used an old cotton blanket (type stowed by grandmothers in airing cupboards) very succesfully and am scouring charity shops for more.

i'm a wannabe quilter really. have made a couple of a4 size quilts and a playmat, but the blocks for my first full size quilt are still languishing (i claim childbirth/newborn as my get-out card). but i do love to read quilting blogs

i did find when i made a quilt with a blanket lining the actual quilting part was way easier than with quilt batting, the whole thing was much more stable and i didn't need anywhere near as many safety pins

I've only made quilts that have asingle piece of cloth for the front - sometimes with a border - like this one

BUT I still haven't plucked up the courage to make a "proper" patchwork one. I have an idea of using different coloured gingham squares with some white gingham I've seen.

i like the idea of blankets as wadding.
i imagined a shaker style rag type quilt with different shaped and sized pieces, i've always thought this might be easer than your traditional patchwork. i've only made small cot size ones, but found keepng the sizing right quite challenging.
can't find a picture but will keep looking.