A couple of months ago I told you about a girly baby shower we had at our church for the sixth baby/first girl of a family in our church.

I knew I wanted to make a special gift for this very special baby girl. I happened upon this idea on Pinterest for a fusion quilt. It’s simple to make but labour intensive. I did so much of it while sitting with my husband while he was at the hospital.

It’s called a “fusion quilt” because you are fusing two crafts – sewing and crocheting.

Sadly I forgot to take a picture of all the fabrics laid out together. Anyway, I decided on the size of square I wanted and how many different colours/patterns. I ended up with four different patterns and a plain colour. Then I had to figure out the math for how much I would need to buy. I also bought enough extra of the solid colour to use for the back of each square.

In these pictures I’m showing you everything from the back of the square because it was plain so the stitches show up better.

The first thing I did after cutting out all the squares was to sew a front and back together. I left a small space for turning and clipped the corners. I turned them right side out and pressed them.

I then went around each one with a topstitch. This helped me set the space for the sewing I had to do on the next step plus closed the hole I had left open for turning. I then did a blanket stitch around each square. The hardest part here was finding a needle that was strong enough to go through the fabric but not so big that it would leave a hole in the fabric. I bought a packet of different purposes needles and after three or four tries found one that worked. I did three stitches in the corners so the corners would turn easily on the next step.

The next step was to go around the square twice crocheting – the first row was a single crochet and the next row a double crochet. I couldn’t believe how much yarn I went through. I had to go back for more and was really praying I could find more in the same dye lot. Thankfully God answered my prayer. I bought everything they had left.

When all the squares were crocheted I laid them out on the floor to get the pattern I wanted. I decided on an actual pattern over just randomness. This ended up being so much bigger than I expected. I don’t know what I was thinking in the planning stages, but this quilt will last the baby will into little girlhood. After the squares were sewn together I did a crocheted scallop trim in a colour that matched the solid colour in the quilt.

A picture of the back.

I enjoyed this project. It was a lot of work, but it’s simple work. I did it at the hospital, at doctor’s visits, listening to my son read his reading exercises, in the car, etc.

What projects have you done that turned out to be more work than you had expected?

Linked to: Art of Home-Making, Encouraging Hearts and Homes