Harry Potter Nursery

More details about the quilt are posted here.

 

When my daughter and son-in-law got the good news that they were to be first time parents, they requested a Harry Potter nursery.  I was at a loss. How was I to make this look soft enough for a baby and yet maintain the requested theme?  I like heirloom style and soft colors.  Harry Potter is neither.

With all the visual fodder in the lengthy 7 book series, it was necessary to narrow the focus.

Keeping in mind that Rebecca specifically requested bright colors, I went to the drawing board.  I like to start a nursery decoration plan with a quilt.  That establishes the color scheme and allows many spin offs and opportunities for accessories.

After deciding on “fantastic creatures” I set to work, looking for designs that could be edited and customized to meet the description of critters from unicorns and fairies (the easy ones) to a thesteral, Pygmy Puff and snidget.

Can you Harry Potter fans identify the “fantastic creatures” shown in the quilt?  Maybe later I will list them.

Rebecca suggested the random angle pieced border, suggestive, she thought, of the Weasleys’ home.

When the quilt was finished, I moved on to bumper pads.  That was a lot of fun and it’s a good thing! These bumper pads were a lot more work than I could justify for the single purpose of keeping our little darling from bumping his head or sliding between the crib rails.  For the 5-6 months that they are used, a lot of time was invested.

Besides, weighing in at 9 lbs. 5 oz. Alastair was unlikely to slip through the rails.  So it’s a good thing that I enjoyed the process.

The headboard pad shows the Hogwarts, the Whomping Willow and an ultrasuede walkway, free motion stippled to look like a stone path.

Forbidden Forest..who’s getting the Howler? Baby Alastair, The Howler?

One side of the crib featured the Hogwarts Express, chugging through the forest.

I forgot the engine was red. Oh well.

The train is from a great collection from Embroidery Library.  It includes all the cars, crossing gates, a water tower, the station and more.

Sorting through all my miniature designs, I selected those which might be found in the forest–deer, rabbits, butterflies, a bird’s nest–as well as a church and an angel. Several regular size designs like a unicorn and dragon were resized to fit into the scene.

When Rebecca and I came upon the forest fabric at Rainbow’s End Quilt Shop on Florida’s Gulf coast, we knew it was a great find.  This print was available in quilting cotton as well as flannel.  We bought both.

The footboard shows Hagrid’s cabin, complete with his pink umbrella, the pumpkin patch and Fang.

Hagrid’s Cabin

These photos were all taken with the pads in the crib.  It was impossible to get a straight-on shot of the embroidery.

The queen sized bed is reserved for visiting grandparents. After this photo was taken, the pad on the cedar chest was recovered with forest fabric.

As I told Rebecca when we began designing the nursery, it’s all for the parents.  They need something to make them smile when baby awakes for a feeding once or more every night.  This nursery makes Rebecca and Harvey grin. And that makes this Nana happy.