As I have mentioned before, I made several quilts in the 70s when I was in my twenties, and didn’t make another quilt for 20 years. In 1995 a quilter came to our school and gave a presentation to my daughter’s 5th grade class in preparation for a class quilting project. The speaker brought a lot of her own quilts, and also some beautiful vintage quilts. She inspired me to dig out my old quilt projects and finish them. Shortly after that I became interested in quilting with authentic vintage fabric, and this quilt was one of my first endeavors. That makes Baby Bunting my oldest unfinished quilt.
It’s another one of those great patterns where you can utilize vintage Double Wedding Ring pieces. I copied the pattern, right down to the same bright yellow, from one of my favorite old quilt books, Creative American Quilting, published by Better Homes and Gardens in 1989. The book is out of print, but it’s easy to find on ebay and also super cheap. There are a couple of bright 70s patterns in the book, but all the others are beautiful vintage quilts.
The individual blocks finish at 5″; large blocks are 20″. I am hand piecing the curved seams, but the straight seams are all machine pieced. The quilt in the book is 80″ x 80″, but I might make mine larger. When I was looking at these photos, I noticed right away that the blocks contain a few reproduction prints. I’m more of a purist now, and like to keep the the prints authentic, at least all of the small pieces — borders and backing are often new since they require much more yardage.
I never would have thought of using Double Wedding Ring pieces for this quilt but I can see it works well.
These blocks are beautiful! Most people wouldn’t be able to pick out the repros. 😉
I absolutely LOVE this quilt!!! The blocks are just beautiful.
Heard of this pattern in a Jennifer Chiaverni book, but I mistook one block to be the entire quilt, so I make them in 8″ sections, so it’s a 32″ block and with a border is perfect for a baby quilt. I say I’m never happier than when I’m working on a Baby Bunting so I always have one I’m sewing or cutting.
I made the Baby Bunting Quilt some years ago and I still have to quilt it. This quilt is full size and a great way to use up scraps. Aunt Martha patterns have been around for a mighty long time and there are plenty of beautiful quilts among the collection of booklets.