Toddlers bed quilts have a lot more to them than colorful stripes and blocks for your kids’ interests. We’ll get to that part later, but if there’s one thing about these quilts that parents seem to agree upon, it’s the quality and the colorfulness factors. Granted that you’ve chosen something totally out of the ordinary for your toddler to sleep in, you may have a hard time putting him/her to sleep. You see, kids need action leisure even while they’re sleeping; it’s just their way of getting around things.

This article will fill in you on different aspects of Toddlers bed quilts, so that you can get the best deal out of them – Not in terms of monetary value, but in terms of what your kids will eventually fall in love with. After all, it’s the toddlers who’re going to be sleeping underneath those sheets at the end of the day. The first thing is that if you don’t have a lot of money on your hand and you’re still interested in making things a little “bright”, you can make Toddlers bed quilts on your own.

All you have to do is a couple of unique ideas. We appended some of them below for you:

-          Toddlers Bed Quilts And Photos:

• This idea is a spin-off of photo quilts. Basically, you take different attractive images that a toddler would like, and then scan them at high resolution. After that, you can either print the images yourself (if you have a high quality Inkjet printer), or take them to the local printers. Make sure you have chosen fabric paper as a print medium; otherwise it won’t make sense printing all the stuff on regular paper.

-          Scraps and Blocks:

• You can use scrap pieces from some of your old fancy quilts. Cut them in multiple shapes and make a new quilt for your toddler. You’ll only need to change the quilt shell, without having to go through its filling and stuff.

Take a look at some of the ideas which will help you and your kid to make the right choice:

-          If your toddler is a little above his/her first year, you can pretty much guess if he/she likes or hates something. At this age, most of the kids are strong and tall enough to climb out of their crib. So you can ask the toddlers about their opinion through that special Parent-toddler language. By the end of that conversation, you guys will end up with a nice toddlers bed quilt.

-          The comfort standards should not be compromised. The quilt needs to be supported with side material such as fleece sheets, cozy flannel tops or a porous sheet on the mattress. Even if the quilt has a fire resistant image on it, it’s better for you to carry out your own precautionary measures.

-          Toddler bed quilts are always available in matching bed set combinations. When you’re at it, buy pillows, seams, blankets and any other accessories because it’ll get you a huge discount in the long run.

Time and time again, whenever we talk about quilts and stuff, we can’t over emphasize the importance of quilted comforters. After all, they the primary source of warmth and comfort during those chilly winter nights, aren’t they? So whenever quilters or manufacturers see a beautiful comfortable piece of quilt out there, they immediately start feeling a sense of veneration in it.

The key to a nice and exquisitely developed quilted comforter lies in the way it is manufactures. Yeah, of course, everyone would want to use the best quality material but if the person doesn’t have the technique figured out, the end result might turn out to be something totally unexpected. In one of our articles we took a look at how quilts are made. It was a machine based process, which involved extensive shell filling, stitching and a lot of dedication.

In case you’re interested in reading that article, look for daybed quilting on this website. Anyway, moving on, we now take a look at quilted comforters from a general perspective. On day to day basis, if your room has been looking a little faded or turned off, you can actually spice up things by changing the comforters. Either you can make one on your own, or you can buy something off the market, but do bear in mind that quilted comforters can be quite expensive.

On top of that, whenever you need to wash them, or dry clean them, it’ll incur additional expenses. Here’s a little run down on a homemade strategy where we talk about how to make quilted comforters the best way possible. This is one of those methods where you’ll end up with quality personified results, while having a beautiful comforter lying on that bed of yours.

• You’re going to need a measuring tape, scissors, a tough sewing machine needle that can bear the load of a few hours of hard work, quilting shells and a will to get through the process. Don’t sweat it; it isn’t that much difficult as you’re probably thinking at the moment.

• According to your measurements, take a wild guess about the amount of material you will need. If you don’t know about the measurements and stuff, bring in your old quilted comforters to place new fabrics on them. This is a nice way of cutting down on expenses.

• For both sides, make sure that you’ve cut appropriate size of the fabric. Once you’ve done that, leave several inches on all sides of the fabric, just to make sure that the seams fill in easily.

• After you’re done with the scissors, it is time for you to pin the inserts at their appropriate places. You can do so by stitching a large piece of seam stitch, with the help of that machine sewing needle.

• Sew all three 4 sides, and leave a small opening for the filling. From then on, you can fill the quilted comforter with previous fillings from your old comforters, or with a new stack of feathers, which you bought at the retailers. That’s it; you’re done with your quilted comforter.

Some time ago, in one of the U.K. issues of Quilting Arts Magazine, Priscilla O’ Rourke showed a remarkable sense of talent. What this fine lady did was that she took an image of the staff group photo that was printed in the magazine, and then turned it into a quilted imagery. Later on, when this photo quilt was displayed in the following issue of the magazine, it not only caused a stir, but people started appreciating the art of photo quilts from a completely new angle.

After thanking brilliant minds like Priscilla, it is time for us to take a look at photo quilts, how they’re made and whether you can make one on your own. For starters, since photos are a source of art, beauty, inspiration and memories, it seems so natural to simply make a couple of photo quilts and then let them hang around in the house of the next couple of generations.

All thanks to the modern technology, it has become quite easy for anyone to make photo quilts because all it takes is a good amount of photographs, scanned images and the process of rendering the fabric. Moving on with the techniques, there’re two main methods that people follow. Do note that there might be some other ways of developing photo quilts, but we just thought of filling you in on the ones we know best.

If you were to follow the first technique, all you need to know is that it involves directly printing the image, or line art, on the quilt fabric. There are people who have a huge inkjet printer, which they use to print black and white line art on the fabric. You can Google “Maria Elkins”, in order to see how she follows this technique in detail – she’s famous for cropping images, converting them into small poster sizes and then printing them on the quilt fabric.

Other quilters are commonly known for free motion sketching of those images. Once they have printed a small photo on a paper, they take these images to a fabric printing company that happily prints the stuff on the desired fabric. The process involves additional expenses, but it is completely worth the hassle.

If you don’t want to burn huge holes in your pockets, then simply go for hand stitching. You can print line art on the quilting cloth, and then follow the trail with the help of needles and multi colored threads. This process takes a lot of time, dedication, accuracy and hard work, but the end results are quite phenomenal. Hand stitched photo quilts are the finest piece of art in the industry.

By the way, if you’re not familiar with motion stitching, you can look for Susan Brubaker books in the local library. If you’re out of luck, search for her articles on techniques of photo quilts, on the internet. This is where she discusses the actual motion stitching process, which you can use to learn and develop your own technique.

These methods are just few of those fine techniques that are used for making photo quilts. Possibly, seeing to the fact that quilting is famous all over the world, maybe there’re techniques that the common U.S. and U.K. markets are not aware of. If you know an unusually effective way of making photo quilts, you can share your techniques with us, through this website or other online platforms. Some people like to use the term, “memory quilts”, for photo quilts. This is their way of relating to their childhood memories. Take a look at a simple process of making photo quilts:

• The material needed for this process, will be a couple of needles, some inserts and pins to hold the quilt in its place, threads of different colors, a sewing machine, photos (duh… of course), fabric paper, scanner and scissors.

-          Scan a high resolution picture of your choice. Choose the appropriate size and then print them on the fabric paper.

-          After placing the photos on the quilt shell, it is time for you to bind them through a sticking technique that involves ironing the fabric. Once it is heated, it will automatically stick to the quilt duvet/ shell below.

-          Now you can start to fill the shell with feathers, or huge puffy cotton swabs.

-          After you’re done filling, start closing the sides by sewing them with the help of your quilt sewing machine.

-          Leave a couple of inches off, if you want to stitch an extra border on the seams. Other than that, you’re done with the process of making photo quilts on your own. Now that wasn’t hard, was it?

This article is about Heritage Quilters Guild. Unfortunately, due to the word count limitation, it wasn’t possible to fill you in on all aspects of this topic. But to our best knowledge, we summarized our hard earned research material that was worth 7,000 words, into 1,000 words only. This was to ensure that you get to read nothing but the finest postulates of different important things attached to Heritage Quilters Guild.

So, let’s get to it:

Who Founded Heritage Quilters Guild, and Why?

Questions such as, who came up with the idea of founding the Heritage Quilters Guild, or is there only one guild in the whole wide world, often arise in the minds of eager quilters. Well, to tell you the truth, in the beginning there was only one guild, but soon enough, the tradition spread all over the world – so much so that currently, there’re Heritage Quilters Guilds all over the globe.

We focused on the River Heritage Quilters Guild in order to give you a general perspective of how it all started. Long ago, in the late 80s, 1989 to be specific, there was a group of people who were interested in preserving the quilting culture. So what they did was that they held a couple of meetings in Cape Public Library; just to share their ideas and see why they were so much interested in quilting on an individual level.

Word reached out and some women from Kentucky also showed interest in joining the River Heritage Quilters Guild. Usually, they’d sit together and discuss a mutual goal for the guild, under the direct supervision of Ms. Sherry Hazel. You can pretty much guess who she was. Anyway, by the time the guild was formulated into a proper shape, these women were already down with the following sub posts in the guild. (This was the time between the months of March and July 1989):

• Nominating Committee

• Membership Programs

• By- Laws Updates

• Newsletters

• Special Projects

• Janitorial Tasks

How Did They Manage Primary Expenses For Running The Guild?

That’s a good question, which some up you have been quivering to ask by now. In order to keep the guild’s finances running, they established a primary account or savings system. Every member of the guild was supposed to chuck out $3. It doesn’t seem like a lot of money currently, but back then, only 34 people paid their dues. By June 1989, new officers were nominated and selected by the Guild members. Since more than 40 people were now paying dues, this factor was taken as a sign of progress and huge motivation for all the individuals who were associated with this body.

Rumor has it that the Heritage Quilters Guild tradition became so popular that the fine ladies in Baltimore and some other major locations, already started thinking of founding their own guilds. Some of them did that, while others simply found peace with such ideas. Anyway, coming back to the River branch of this main guild, you’ll be amazed to know that during their first summer season, tons of people showed interest in joining the guild.

Since most of them were those women who didn’t know much about quilting, the guild’s officers invited them in for a $12 membership fee. Seeing to the fact that they’d be learning from their experts, $12 didn’t seem like too much of a fee. Everyone was just trying to focus on the first summer challenge of the guild, i.e. make a charm quilt with the help of using 4 inch fabric pieces only.

What Did They Do With These Quilts?

Every single piece of quilt, which was considered a beauty from its own unique perspective, was either sold or auctioned off. As a matter of fact, in February 1990, the River Heritage Quilters Guild held its first silent auction, which was later on followed by a dinner. The proceedings of this auction were mainly donated to the wellbeing of the local Sheriff’s Department. This decision was made by the mutual consent of all the active members of the quilters’ community.

Here at this point, you can get the general idea that the guild’s main interests were to support their local communities, as much as possible. One of the most active members of the Heritage Quilters Guild, Ms. Judy Robinson, alongside her 3 other colleagues, made 4 fabulous quilts that were donated to Lt. Bud Proffer. These kind hearted women just wanted to make sure that these quilts could come in handy during any unforeseen emergency situations.

The First Birthday of Heritage Quilters Guild:

After an entire year went by smoothly, in March 1990, it was time to celebrate the first River Heritage Quilters Guild anniversary. By then, already a staggering number of donations were being made to the guild, while more and more members were willing to join this noble cause every other month. The main officers of this super friendly guild saved some money and started donating books to different schools, and the local libraries.

In addition to donations and anonymous funding projects, the guild members also celebrated the first anniversary by exchanging gifts. Everyone seemed really happy at the fact that they were preserving the tradition of hand quilting, while contributing their fair share of the good deeds to the society.

The Present Shape and Future of Heritage Quilters Guild In General:

Followed by the popularity of River Heritage Quilters Guild, many other guilds such as Star Supporters Quilt Guild etc. are on the horizon. Presently in the modern online world, quilting is considered to be a dying art. The statement might seem offensive to those who’ve always carried on the tradition of hand quilting, within a long generation of family trees, but as we look at this thing from a bird’s eye view, it has become so much automated.

Corporation and markets who manufacture quilts, they just follow a mechanized procedure, where machines do most of the work. In fact, if you take a look at how quilts are made in the modern world today, you’d be amazed to see that quilters only have to do 1/4 ^th of the entire bidding – Quilting is now taken as more of a hobby, rather than anything special per say.

The most that you can squeeze out of quilts is a rare vanity item that’s hanging lopsidedly on your wall or a collection of modern quilts that are nothing more than a source of warmth during winters. The modern generation doesn’t know much about quilts. They simply care about tweeting, Facebook status messages and social networking; tis the parents and grandparents who’re concerned about maintaining this culture throughout as many generation as possible.

So here are a couple of important questions that people seemed to be asking each other, in the online forums:

• Are we dedicated to hand quilting, the way our ancestors were?

• Do we have the same level of ability, expertise, patience and concentration that was once needed for hand quilting?

• Are the popular quilting practices still being followed in every other household?

Quite frankly, the answers are, No, No, and umm….. NO. Most of us don’t know about the definition of quilting, other than the fact that it involves duvet filling, machines churning out huge amounts of feather and some sewing at the front line employee level. Back in the 12 ^th century, the early American settlers looked at quilting as a source of earning livelihood.

Later on when the heritage quilting guilds were formed, their main purpose was to maintain the culture, while collecting enough funds to support the local communities. Most of the proceedings from selling those hand quilted quilts went to charities, schools or local libraries.

However, on the bright side, the modern quilting industry has come up with techniques and possibilities that were once beyond the imagination levels of our ancestors. For instance, photo quilts are something where you can simply scan the images of your choice, scan them and then print them on a fabric paper. To further add up to the enhancement factor, you can follow the image line art trail with your needles and a couple of colorful threads. The end results aren’t that shabby.

Coming back to the subject of whether hand quilting is a dying art, or not, take a look at what people had to say on the internet:

• One fine lady said that back when she was in the middle of attending a Quilt Show in Manitoba, there wasn’t even one hand quilted piece out there. It was as if the name of the show was just titular in nature, because everything seemed so “manufactured”. Most of the attendants belonged to the 20’s or late 20’s, so they didn’t know anything about hand quilting that much.

Hand quilting used to take off with an idea, or a need, which your old gran would come up with. She would then wear the thickest pair of spectacles, pull a chair in the sun room and then get to it. In the next couple of months, old gran would keep her head bent down, her gaze fixated on the imaginary trails, until the quilt was complete.

Now we look at quilting on the internet, and we see a couple of YouTube videos that companies cram out for their popularity campaigns. What we don’t realize is that there’s a lot more to hand quilting besides Facebook links, Likes, Tweets and iPads as a reward to winners of some nomad company contest. We’re at the verge of entering a new generation of quilting, where original quilts are replaced by quilt magazines.

Our kids are raised in a systematic manner; their activities have to be planned ahead of each weekend. This is to make sure that we do things in a robot like manner, or in a way that’s considered to be a long lost hobby. Back to the subject of handmade quilts, we have lost the original gurus but it is the way that life is supposed to be.

Life has a way of expanding, moving on and forcing its occupants to move along. Those who don’t want to move on, they’re forgotten easily. Take that as an adaptation towards technological advancements. Yeah, it feels good to get connected with your past and the way hand quilting was once treated in the families, but this isn’t the same stuff anymore.

The modern patterns of quilts are mostly squares, block, rectangles or geometric shapes. Do you know the reason behind it? Obviously, when a machine is programmed to follow a pattern, it becomes a lot easier for it to simply follow defined shapes, rather than random designs. Squares and block seem like the easiest way of doling out quilts at lightning speed.

Some people think that hand quilting is an unwanted, or an equally un needed art. They’re the ones who mostly don’t appreciate the brevity of even stitches. But then again, the incredulous look that a true admirer of quilting comes up with, at the mere sight of seeing handmade quilts, it is quite rare. Hence the folks who’re still maintaining this age old culture; they realize that they’re only doing it for their own enjoyment.

Plus, it doesn’t hurt to follow this culture within one’s family. No one has to know if you’re making quilts on your own, or you’re buying a pair off of Amazon, eBay or Walmart. By the way, if you’re interested in reading more about quilts, stick around and this website will tout out quite a load of informative articles for you. Other than that, you can check online forums, profiles, blogs and journals to stay in contact with people of similar taste.

Rest assured, whether its hand quilting or machine based techniques, you’ll be walking off with innovative ideas. You can later on share those ideas and expand your learning curve.

Dream on, dream on, quilters everywhere. We all dream of making that once-in-a lifetime quilted heirloom…a wonderful quilt that that will challenge our abilities and show forth our very best efforts, The Compass Rose quilt is just this kind of challenge!

 • Fall 1989 – Quilts Magazine….

1929 oversaw several drastic things in the economy. Wall Street almost collapsed. Then there was the great depression, which was followed by a prolonged unemployment period. However, if it weren’t for those perilous days, we wouldn’t have understood the usefulness and effectiveness of quilting.

Yes, while the men were unemployed, it was the ladies who started making big bucks by selling their quilting patterns – Finally a skill that started getting recognized as a major source of income generation for entire families. Fast forward to today and you’ll see that people are still scavenging quilting patterns across far and wide corners of the sewing communities.

The only problem is that they don’t know where to get those patterns from. If you’re fueled by the 19 century patchwork diva mentality, and you’re not able to find any free quilting patterns, don’t sweat it. There’re other people just like you who’re trying to look for the same thing. This is where this article is going to help you locate free quilting pattern websites across the internet, without any hassles.

• Craft Town :

· Right off the bat, we’ve got a popular website known as Craft Town. These guys have thousands of quilting patterns, sewing patterns, stencil templates and anything that has to deal with crochet designs. Plus, if you’re a newbie, you can dig in on the special tutorial section that’s accompanied by learner level videos and articles. These tutorials are a great way of learning the ropes if you don’t even know how to hold a needle.

º Due to the fact that this website is updated on regular basis, it has become quite a point of interest for online visitors, just like you.

• Crochet Pattern Central:

· This one is another online platform for quilting savvy adventurers. The main focus of Crochet Pattern Central is shifted towards the introduction of crochet stitching styles, but sometimes they like to update their content data base with free quilting patterns as well.

• Free Patterns:

· When it comes to free quilting patterns, ‘Free Patterns’” name is widely popular over the internet. This website is a major source of free sewing patterns from different aspects of the industry. The designs are downloadable in multi file formats, which further increases their likeability factor.

º You can also find an on-site beginner guide. It is lined up with different stitching styles and free patterns for quilters from all levels of learning.

If you’re interested in finding more free quilting patterns, don’t forget to check different online resources through this web page. You can also contact fellow quilters through online forums and emails to get your hands on new quilting ideas, patterns and free advice.

From a more generalized perspective, daybed quilts look suitable when they’re used with duvet or Nordic comforter sets, daybed bed sheets, normal bedroom decorations and etc. Anyhow, moving on, let’s talk about how to buy a particular daybed quilt, and what to look for, in order to ensure that you buy nothing but top quality content.

As a rule of thumb, you should buy these quilts from a reputable retailer. There’re lots of them at Amazon and eBay, so finding someone trustable is not a big deal. Some people also sell worn out daybed quilts, which are a decent and cheap purchase, considering the fact that you’d want to go through a little bit of a hassle to change the top covers and patch up the sheets a little bit.

But if you’re willing to buy new daybed quilts, make sure that their material is of top notch quality. Now, we talk about the subject of how to make daybed quilts – this is for those people who’re interested in creating quilts at home. The process involves specific steps and particular tools that can help a person create as many quilts as possible.

The first step is to buy the shell for daybed quilts. Some people, who’re in the business of selling these quilts as a sole source of income, they buy quilt shells, on regular basis, from one particular retailer. The next step is to determine whether it’s the European, or the Canadian quilt shells you want to go for. Regardless of the choice factor, this step is followed by the selection of the cotton or feathers.

Normally, the ideal process to select the cotton for daybed quilts is on per square basis. After weighing the stuff, it is time for you to throw on your mask and move ahead with the filling process. Here at this point, some people like to fill the quilt shell with hands, while others like to stick with German filling machines. The machine fills each square of the shell with the maximum number of feather particles. After each square is filled, the daybed quilts shell fabric squares are closed by hand, and the fabric automatically overlaps itself.

The duvet is ready to go as soon as all the sewing process is done. All in all, this is pretty much the entire process of creating daybed quilts on your own. For starters, you’ll need a little bit of investment, if you’re interested in purchasing the filling machine, but it is completely worth it. If you don’t want to purchase the machine, simply go with the manual labor system, until you have saved enough to purchase one.

As an author, who takes antiquities and rare items as a side hobby, I’ve always dabbled in antique family quilts with keen interest. This article will fill you in on details regarding a general idea about antique quilts, the way they’re transferred from family to family, and tid bits of keeping them safely stored, while crunching out a long shelf life out of them – so let’s get to it, shall we?

First of all, when we take an introductory approach towards antique family quilts, think of an ordinary person’s life in the country side. Go back to the 80’s or 60’s, and you’ll see that the idea of air conditioning was still in its infancy. Same goes for those chilly winter nights, because people didn’t have internal heaters, boilers or central cooling system. To them, quilts and fireplaces were the only thing to look up to.

People back then, didn’t treat, or regard them as antique items. If you were to question your great-great grandmother about whether she kept those quilts safe for the sake of keeps, or she was just trying to store them for next year usage; chances are that 99.9% of those grannies will go for option B.

Yes, these so called “antique family quilts” were just traditional household items, and people just kept them safely tucked in an attic or somewhere else because they wouldn’t have to make new ones the following winter. Gradually when years skipped by, the quilts became a rare item. More so, because of the fact that they were hand quilted, it added to their appeal and originality.

Currently at the verge of 21 ^st century, when we’re about to lose connection to our culture and old traditions, item like antique family quilts are the only thing that are maintaining a steady connection. Some of these quilts are sold to museums and auction houses for a tremendously handsome price, while others are locked somewhere inside the family tree.

It’s true that we don’t have those frail hands of an old lady who’d quilt in that rusty porch, every sunny afternoon, but at the same time we can maintain the integrity and life of antique family quilts by tending to proper storage measures. So the next big thing is how to store antique family quilts, without incurring any damages?

Here’s How:

• If you have space in your house, spread those antique family quilts evenly and cover them with a layer of plastic wrappings. Leave them there as long as you wish them to be left.

• The second method is most common as it involves folding the quilts. All you have to do is spread the quilts, cover them with a protective cellophane layer and fold them. After that, cover the entire bundle with another layer of plastic wrappings and you’re done.

Interested in knowing more about antique family quilts? Surf the internet or read informative articles, I’m sure you’ll find tons of interesting things this way.