Baby Clothing memory quilt with homespun fabric

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This adorable memory quilt option will surely tug at the heart of any mama or grandma.  Just seeing, touching and handling all these sweet memories from your little one's baby years will bring a flood of emotions.  The concept is very simple and we think this is the easiest t-shirt quilt we have done.  Simply make a small rag throw (no batting) from one simple design homespun fabric.  Then applique sweet little squares of fabric cut from baby's special clothes.  How easy is that??!!  Most likely the little guy is too big by now for a baby quilt but the idea here is to create a memory piece.  Fill this little quilt up with his/her cute little baby items and then put it up and save it for posterity.  Someday you can give that quilt to the adult child for his/her own little one!  Below are some pics of a quilt done from our sweet baby James' clothing.  James is 9 at the time of this publishing so this one is going into the memory box to be brought out again at some time in the future.  ​
​For this particular quilt, we started with 6" homespun squares.  Each square is two layers thick.  We cut a clear template 3.5" square to do a fussy cut on the baby clothes.  A fussy cut lets you see what you are cutting and center up any special elements of the cut. 

The basic steps are this:
  1. Cut 96 six inch squares from homespun fabric.   This must be homespun or you won't get the lovely frayed seams. 
  2. Stitch the squares together in rows and columns, 8 squares x 6 squares, with a 5/8 seam.  Each square should be two layers thick.
  3. Stitch around the entire perimeter of the throw 5/8 inch from the raw edge.
  4. Clip the exposed seams and outer edges 1/2 inch apart and 1/2 inch deep.  See clipping instructions here.
  5. Machine wash cold & tumble dry the throw to preshrink it so it will match up well with the baby clothes.
  6. Cut a 3.5 inch template from any clear plastic material. Our template was cut from the top of the gourmet popcorn mix container! :-)
  7. Cut 48 squares of fabric out of the baby clothes.  Knits & fleece work best.  Be sure to get all those cute "Daddy's Little Guy" graphics!
  8. Lay out your clothing squares on the throw and arrange/rearrange to your satisfaction.  Pin in place.
  9. Using a small tight zigzag and a walking presser foot, stitch through all thickness of the clothing and the throw to secure the clothing square to the throw.
    Stitch about 1/8 inch from the raw edge.  The raw edges of the knits will eventually curl up softly and look very nice with the ragged seams of the homespun.
  10. All done!  You are wrapping up this baby season and moving on.  Life is good.