Alphabet Baby Quilt and extra ideas

I couldn't resist transforming Michael Miller's Italian Alphabet into this baby quilt:

The fabrics from this collection have been in my stash for a while now and it's one of my favourites. The style is very "vintage" and reminds me of the books my Italian Grandma, Nonna Clara, used to give me to play with when I was a child.

The striped border is a coordinating fabric that gives the quilt a modern twist and I like the effect. It makes the letters stand out, like a frame. The size of this quilt is 67 x 57 cm (26.38 x 22.44 inches), which I found was a really good size for using in a pram or wrapping round my baby for the first months. Of course it gets too small rather quickly (these babies grow so fast!!!) but then an alphabet quilt like this would look really good hanging up in a child's bedroom too, don't you think?

Along the edge of the  Italian Alphabet panel were these little pictures which I decided to use to make fabric magnets.

The house "casa" one in the top right hand corner has become this magnet:

Lucy loves magnets and this is a fun way for learning new words, moving them about on the fridge making up stories. As I had more than one Italian Alphabet (I told you I really like this collection!) why not make something different: a lavender sachet with the initial of the person you giving it to.

The winner of our 100th Blog Post Giveaway is Quilting Tangent! Congratulations, Pinocchio has found a new home! Bye bye!