Hunny Buzz Baby Quilt on Its Way!

Adding the last touch to this custom baby quilt with Tigger supervision! (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Hunny Buzz Baby Quilt on Its Way!

There are a number of steps to make a custom baby quilt, from picking the design, then the fabrics, how we plan to finish it and what toy will keep it company as it waits to warm a small one. One of my personal favorite steps is hand sewing the tag on the baby quilt. I don’t do it until the baby quilt has been purchased and is ready to be shipped.

Oh, we could sew the tags in the process of making the baby quilt. There is something very - well, personal - about hand sewing on the label. It gives me time to remember all of the work that went into making the custom baby quilt and to wonder about the new baby that will make this a favorite childhood friend.

I have a soft spot for this particular baby quilt I called Hunny Buzz Baby Quilt. In addition to featuring some of my brothers’ favorite childhood characters, it includes some of mine, from birds, snails and caterpillars. It also has some of my adult favorites, can you guess which ones those are?

Tigger is ready to keep this charming baby quilt company! (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

The custom baby quilt name gives it away, Hunny and Bees.

As a special treat, this custom Hunny Buzz baby quilt has a patterned backing with the same characters, making this custom baby quilt reversible.

And how can I forget a special mention of the bouncy Tigger toy that travelled with the custom baby quilt? Ok, so picking out the toys to match the baby quilts is my second best favorite thing to do, I really enjoyed matching Tigger up to this baby quilt.

So as Winnie the Pooh says, “Home is the comfiest place to be.”

Charlotte

A Monarch's Life Handmade Custom Quilt

The Monarch Butterfly’s life cycle from cocoon to butterfly. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

A Monarch’s Life Handmade Custom Quilt

As we start to hear that Monarchs are migrated back north from their wintering grounds in Mexico, I remembered this lovely custom handmade quilt featured at the 2019 Piece and Plenty Quilt Guild in Rolla, Missouri.

The custom handmade quilt by Lillian Collins features a Monarch Butterfly’s life cycle from cocoon to eclosing as a butterfly. If you look at the photo of the Monarch butterflies in a circle, it’s easy to miss that the green spots in the center are cocoons.

In a wider view of the custom handmade quilt, Monarch caterpillars are around the outside border, enjoying one of the Monarch butterfly’s food source.

The Monarch’s Life Cycle in this lovely custom handmade quilt. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Monarch butterflies depend on the various native milkweed varieties to guide them south in the fall. As one species dies off, Monarch butterflies move south to the next food patch, staying only as long as there is food.

One of the more common Monarch butterfly food sources is called “butterfly weed.” The very orange flowers are part of the milkweed family, the main source of Monarch butterfly food.

Butterfly weed, a member of the milkweed family, is featured in quilt corners. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

The loss of habitat for butterflies like Monarchs, and other insects, is now part of nationwide effort to plant more plants for pollinators.

Missouri’s Missourians for Monarchs includes more than 43 major federal and state organizations focused on planting 385,000 acres of new pollinator foraging areas. Although Monarch butterflies are mentioned in the partnership’s name, other butterflies, and bees, will benefit from the additional food sources.

The love of Monarch butterflies was also the inspiration for Lillian Collins custom handmade quilt.

Here’s how this custom butterfly quilt was designed and inspired. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

The custom handmade Monarch Butterfly quilt is a lovely work of art as well as tribute to these amazing butterfly pollinators.

Charlotte

All Blue Double Wedding Ring Custom Quilt

Close up of our All Blue Double Wedding Ring quilt made in Missouri. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

All Blue Double Wedding Ring Custom Handmade Quilt

So how do we decide on the color of some of our handmade quilts? Very simple, we track trends and select fabrics that are popular.

Although popular colors can vary over time, there is one color range that prevails as a favorite bedroom color - blue. Sometimes it’s a country blue, other times it’s the darker more navy blue that is the 2020 Pantone color of the year.

Blue is a happy color. It’s the color of sunny, cloudless days, of Virginia bluebells, of newborn eyes.

Most blues work well with each other, whether it’s a lighter blue color or the drama of Navy blue.

It’s also a popular wedding gift color so we have an all blue double wedding ring handmade quilt with a range of blue all cotton fabrics, something that will easily fit into any blue bedroom.

So if you don’t know what color handmade quilt to pick, pick a blue!

Charlotte