This small wall hanging is for one of my darling nieces. In fact, it is the center panel in a group of three wall hangings that include all of the baby’s vital statistics. Yes, I have covered up some of the details to protect the baby’s privacy. And don’t miss the saying across the bottom of all three little quilts.

The baby’s mom wanted animals on the quilt, so together we agreed on the three bear patterns. (Yes, I realize that only one of these is really a bear. The sources for these designs and any others used in the quilts are listed at the end of this post.)

Luckily for me, my very talented daughter has a large, ten-needle embroidery machine, so she very nicely, and quickly, embroidered the bears on large pieces of fabric and stabilizer. (The stabilizer is the white fabric on the bottom layer in the photo below.)

After the bears were embroidered, I cut them to the finished size: 6 ½” square. The ruler in the photo is 6 ½” square.

Here’s a close-up of the koala.

Then I pieced the squares that surround each bear. For each little quilt, I used four half-square triangles, one in each corner, and four flying geese, one on each side, top, and bottom of the bear.

I used the same pink heart fabric, but added a different second fabric for each quilt. The photo below shows the light gray print I paired with the koala.

I used this pale pink flower print with the brown bear.

After I had sewn the bear squares to the pieced squares, it was time to add the borders. My wonderful daughter embroidered four borders for each quilt. The borders on the sides and top of the little quilts included the baby’s name, birthdate, birth place, weight, and length.

Because the baby’s mom was hanging the three quilts horizontally, we used each of the three bottom borders to write one part of a three-part description of the baby. The photo below shows these borders before I sewed them to the quilts.

After adding the borders, I machine quilted the top, batting, and backing together, and then added a binding.

Here are some close-ups of the quilting. I practiced these quilt designs for several hours before I dared to sew them on the quilts themselves.

I quilted little flowers in the corners of every quilt.

For the back of the quilt, I picked a fabric that I loved, and it had the added advantage of hiding my quilting stitches so I didn’t worry about how they looked on the back.

My last addition was a small quilt label, kindly embroidered by my daughter, and attached to the back of each quilt.

I love these small, pink wall hangings. They will look darling in the room of the soft, new baby girl.

*Brown bear: Itch2Stitch on Etsy. https://www.etsy.com/listing/175781032/valentine-heart-bear-applique-design-for.

*Panda: PlanetApplique.com. http://planetapplique.com/little-panda-applique/.

*Koala: Itch2Stitch on Etsy. https://www.etsy.com/listing/187386238/koala-bear-applique-design-for-machine?ref=shop_home_active_11.

*Square flower quilting design: Lori Kennedy at TheInboxJaunt.com. http://theinboxjaunt.com/2014/01/28/the-square-flower-a-free-motion-quilting-tutorial/.