I like the gingham. You could always do a floor quilt and make it 36" square. Then you'd be able to use the pink for the backing. You can always tie it, if you don't want to quilt.

46x 49 is a good sized baby quilt. A crib mattress is 51 1/4 inches by 27 1/2. I make recieving blankets 38 x 43 and mothers just love them because you can wrap the baby up and it stays wrapped.

The fleece shouldn't shrink and if the cotton is poly cotton or preshrunk they should be just fine together. Lovely choices for the main body too. I too like the gingham. If you include a batting I would tie the corners of the blocks with pink embroidery thread

I wonder if I should just square up the fleece and make a receiving blanket tomorrow, and buy pink flannel (I need to buy thin batting anyway) and make a toddler-sized blanket? I googled it and measured some of DD's old ones, it seems like 40x50 to 44x60 (using full width of the "quilt block" fabric) would allow her to use it for years, actually tuck in in the bottom of a toddler bed.

I've never tied a quilt, would that be safe for a baby? How far apart should the ties be? I assume I could use embroidery floss or whatever I use to blanket-stitch the fleece with (thin yarn?), if I do a receiving blanket. What would you use for that?

Yes tieing it is completely safe for baby. I always tie my seat pads for my kitchen chair pads with embroidery floss and none of them have come undone. I just made new ones but i had the last ones for 10 years and they get more wear than a blanket would. The ties go in the corners of your squares. you make a small x over the corner then tie the ends in a square knot and clip the ends to 1/4 inch. Make sure it's a square knot and not a granny knot. I prefer embroidery floss because it ties better than yarn and doesn't stretch.

I just did 2 fleece blankets for my niece's baby. I did the hemming on the machine. This is how I did it. I folded it over 1 inch toward the right side and left the corners free. Them took the corners and made them into miters and pinned. Then I sewed the miters on all the corners, removed the pins and turned the hem back to the wrong side and pinned. I gave the edges a press with a damp press cloth under the iron. Then I sewed the hem with a decorative stitch. My machine has a stitch with little hearts. I widened the stitch as much as I could and sewed over the edge of the fleece to make a hem. Fleece does not fray so it doesn't have to be turned under. I don't know what stitches your machine has, just make sure you use one that has width so you can keep the edge of the material in the middle of the stitch. I sewed on the wrong side and the stitches showed up well on the right side and it looks good with that 1 inch hem.

A toddler bed uses a crib mattress which is 51 1/4 inches long. If you want to be able to tuck it in I'd go for at least 60 inches in length.

I ran out last night and got pink flannel and 45x60 quilt batting so that's the size (maybe have to cut down width for fabric, think it's 44, flannel might be a little more). I'll have to hunt for my embroidery floss (or maybe go to Michael's later this week) since apparently Wallie's doesn't carry it anymore.

I've never used my machine for anything but basic stitches, I tried overcast but it didn't work out. To finish edges of a fleece blanket I'd use blanket stitch by hand, but what kind of thread/yarn to use? Just for future reference, I don't know if I'll make a fleece blanket for her right now, but I have a lot of blue double-nap fleece and thought her older brother might want a blanket too. The pink fleece is one-sided so maybe I'll save it to make pants for DD that I bought it for.

If I tie the quilt, do you tie every square? These are 2x2 squares. The batting is a sheet, not loose, so wouldn't need to be secured that much. The X goes on the back side and the 1/4 tail goes on the decorative side?

Something else to think about - I've been making a LOT of baby items lately. I'm working on a quilt that will finish to 26 x 34.5". The reason it's so small is because I want it to be a favorite blanket that can be drug around until it wears out. I do quilt (as of recently), but the quilting is going to be done with chenille strips going down the rows & even as edging rather than binding. So it will be fluffy, & I hope brushed a lot with little hands.

I'm going to make a separate post titled "Re-inventing Chenille" for the book & an idea of what I'm talking about.

How wonderful of your cousin to name her baby after your DD. Your blanket looks great, & I'm sure she'll love it no matter how you finish it.

gram999 - actually, since I have about 7ft (not 2 yds) of the print, I was thinking of making a smaller version (roughly 20 x 44) she could use now as well as the larger one that will fit a toddler bed. I even bought 3 yds of flannel (figuring I could use extra for PJs) since I wasn't sure how much it would shrink. Everything's in the dryer now.

The small blanket would have no batting or loose fill though since the batting I bought last night is crib-sized. It would have to be self-bound or use the satin binding (unless someone could suggest a sturdier alternative, I still have the fleece, maybe do the smaller one with the fleece back wrapped around to the front, no batting?). I don't have enough of the gingham binding. She could then use the small one for a doll if she doesn't drag it around as a lovey.

I don't think my cousin knows the name of the DD I miscarried, though she knows I miscarried a couple of times that year.

A neat way to do the fleece if you wrap it around the blanket, would be to cut it with a wavy blade in your rotary cutter, or use pinking shears. It won't ravel, but that would add a special touch.

The satin binding would be fine. Babies & toddlers love to feel satin.

Sorry to hear about your 2 miscarriages. That had to be heart-breaking.

Gram

Argh - I washed the flannel I bought, it had a big white line down the middle from being folded on the bolt. They took it back but didn't have a new bolt or anything else that looked good with it *and* the gingham binding.

I did buy 1/3 yd of the alphabet pattern (all-over pattern matching the blocks on the "quilt") to use as a border to extend the smaller piece to something like 30x45, I'm not sure the fleece will fit as the backing if I do that since it's cut crooked, but I needed to widen the scrap and figured it would help square it too. I'll have to check another Walmart tomorrow. Guess I'm not going to make *either* blanket by my self-imposed deadline of Sat (1 week after birth). Maybe by Monday.

Thanks gram - yes, I had 1 mc (blighted ovum) right after my grandma died, got pg again within months and then mc'd again shortly after (that was Hope). Long story, but it took another year to get pg with AJ. I had another mc last year (that baby was due exactly a year - same day - before my cousin's baby). But that one was unplanned and very early.