In the past few years, I’ve started a tradition of making quilts for the new babies among our friends… and I have been busy! I strive for patterns that are fun for a little one, but something that they can … Continue reading
If you’re already familiar with Spoonflower, then you know how amazing their site is. If you haven’t been introduced to them yet, be prepared to be completely addicted! They can custom print anything on fabric, and you can design your … Continue reading
“DNA, you’re in my heart
DNA, in fact you’re in every part of my body
Each cell has a nucleus, each nucleus has chromosomes
And DNA, baby, that spells DNA”
-That Spells DNA by Jonathan Coulton
I can thank Steve, who is at the forefront of all things nerdy, for introducing me to Jonathan Coulton over a decade ago. Of course, as a genetic counselor, I have a particular soft spot for “That Spells DNA.” If you’re as nerdy as we are, and you don’t already know and love this song, you will want to check it out!
So, when we found out we were having a mini baby boom in our work family, with two babies due within two months, it wasn’t too hard for me to decide on DNA-themed baby quilts as gifts.
I found the DNA-themed fabric, Color DNA stripe by Melissa McCulloch, on Spoonflower. The fabric in the quilts is actually left over from a few Halloweens ago when our group dressed up as (if terrible puns cause you pain, skip this next part!) Gene-gnomes. The colors were a perfect jumping off point for this colorful gender-neutral patchwork of yellow, blues, greens and coral-red.
This pattern is called Stacked Coins and is easy to adapt to scraps of all kinds.
Here are some close-ups of the beautiful fabrics. I wanted to use every last scrap of the DNA fabric, so there is one patch in each of the quilts that I like to call “CRISPRed.” Can you spot one?
And here are a few more pictures of the quilts during their photo shoot, before they went off to their new homes!
All the colors and patterns together make me so happy! I am excited to meet the newest babies of our work family and give them their quilts, so they can start their genetics lessons early!
“Jewels”
I keep every little scrap of paper, fabric, or ribbon that might possibly be used again… and I know that I got this habit from my mom. When I was going through her fabric stash a few years ago, I found some fabric leftover from my baby blanket. The remnant looked surprisingly bright next to the worn and faded blanket I am familiar with, but there was no mistaking those happy tigers and vibrant flowers.
When I was pregnant with our first baby, I decided to make a new blanket out of this fabric, and now all three boys have their own quilts with a little piece of this special fabric.
Since the piece of fabric I found was small, I knew the blanket had to be a patchwork, so I found other scraps of yellows, greens, and whites from my mom’s stash and improvised a design to feature this special nostalgic print. I made it with just the pieced front and a solid back – no batting – so it would be lightweight and versatile.
A few years later, we were expecting our second child, and with the few squares I had left, I again pieced a blanket for our new baby.
I joked for a while that since I had used up that small piece of fabric, we couldn’t have any more kids… But as the years went by, we did want to add to our family, and I didn’t let the lack of tiger print fabric stop me!
When I planned this new baby’s blanket, I decided I had to cut into my old blanket to get the fabric. It wasn’t that hard a decision, as I hadn’t used my blanket in ages, and the tiger print was extra special in this case, since our youngest was born in the year if the tiger.
I love seeing how this whimsical print is now woven through all our childhoods.
The boys’ special blankets have been useful and treasured over the years, and I love how they are all connected but each unique… Just like the boys themselves!
And I still have enough of that baby blanket left over to make something for my grandkids some day. You can bet I am going to keep it!
“Jewels”
Jewels at Home 