OLIVER'S BIG BOY BED BLANKET

We recently had the pleasure of a visit with almost two year old grandson Oliver who lives in Nashville. He is cute, smart, kind, a great eater and sleeper and just FUN to be around. The  two older grandkids, 10 year old Stella and 7 year old Sam got to come for dinner and a visit, we are always happy to see them--they are busy kids and even though they live 30 minutes from us, we don't get to see them very often.  Facetime is a blessing for grandparents and grandkids. Having them all together was a good time for all:

Because I will be traveling when his 2nd birthday party happens, I decided to get his gift ready early. This is Oliver's Big Boy Bed Blanket:

 

I saw an ad either on Facebook or Instagram and wondered if it was really as good as it looks. You never know. But after seeing it for a couple weeks I bit the bullet and ordered it. 

It's about 58" x 68", minky fabric both top and bottom, and really cute. It is called the ABC HIDDEN PICTURES QUILT PANEL from Block Party Quilt Company. I ordered their minky for the back as well. It came fairly quickly. 

Find the information here: Block Party Quilt Co.

I simply cut the top and back the same size, placed them right sides together, stitched a half inch wide seam all around the "sandwich", leaving a 10" opening for turning. There is no batting inside, just two layers of minky, so soft and cuddly. 

After turning the "blanket" right sides out, I hand stitched the opening closed. Then I quilted inside the outer edge about 1/2" to make it look like a binding. I quilted around the border separating the pictures from the words. Then I simply quilted a line between each long vertical row of pictures. This was enough. Minky is slippery and there are a few puckers on the back. I decided against going across each horizontal row too as that would only create more puckers.

It washed and dried great, no problems with that. All in all, I was satisfied with it. And the whole thing was done in less than two hours.

Oliver loved it. Did I say he's smart? He quickly picked out the tractors, dump trucks, cats, boots, etc. I hope he enjoys using it on his big boy bed. 

Giving gifts like this is what quilting grandparents do. It was fun to make and I can recommend this product so far. I don't think the colors will fade very much over time. It's not an heirloom meant to last forever, just a gift of love I hope Oliver will enjoy for a few years.

Let's quilt.

Barbara