Doll bed and quilt – part 2

Doll bed and quilt – part 1 (in case you missed it)

I am 95% finished with this project.  I finished the quilt and the pillow case this weekend and even made a mattress for the bed.  The bed is painted and assembled but I don't have the retro nursery furniture decals for it yet.  I thought I had some saved from the last time I did this project but I must have tossed them.  The waterslide decal paper doesn't age well.  It tends to curl up after a while.   Next time I'll keep them pressed in a book (and will have to write down where so I don't forget).

Don't look too closely at my piecing work.  No matter how carefully I cut, how carefully I watch my seam allowance; things always get wonky.  Ah well – I know you don't come here for my mad quilting skills.

The quilt is made up of 1 1/4" squares (12 wide and 10 long) with a 2 1/2" white border all around.  The overall dimensions are 19 1/2" x 22 1/2".  If I did it again I would have gone with a two inch border.  It could have been a smidge smaller.

I used flannel for the backing (no batting) and did a simple diagonal quilting across the white squares.  

I used the sweetest crocheted edge double fold bias tape for the binding.  I just sandwiched the quilted top and back in the fold and pinned the heck out of it and then sewed it on, praying the back would catch properly (it did).  We won't talk about what I did at the corners.  Like I said, I hope you come here for the witty repartee and not quilting tips.

I decided at the last minute to make a mattress for the bed.  My original plan was to just paint the mattress platform white and call it a day but it sits about an inch below the side rails so the quilt looked funny when the bed was made.  I just made a simple box cushion type cover and stuffed it with batting.  

I did a simplified version of a box cushion.  Rather than cutting the top, bottom and four sides I just sewed two pieces together and then sewed across the corners and clipped them.   I wanted the mattress to be about an inch thick so I opened up the corners so the seams were matched up, and the corners formed a 90 degree angle, with the seam down the center. Then I lined a ruler up with this seam and marked a 1" clip off the corner.   I sewed across my marking and snipped off the corners.  I think a picture (even a crappy one) is warranted: 

I tufted it using some vintage mother of pearl buttons.  If I had used foam for the mattress, instead of batting, it would have been a little more structured looking but I'm happy with how it turned out and it was worth the effort for the overall effect. 

My granddaughter turns two on Sunday and this will be one of her birthday presents.  I hope she enjoys it as much as I did making it.