Minimalist Beach Baby Quilt
Custom Nature-inspired Half Light Quilt with Mid Mod Vibes
Oh this is a very special custom baby quilt for a very special baby and his superlative mother. This quilt was custom made for a dear friend to celebrate her second baby. I consulted with her sisters, and we bandied about theme ideas and settled on marine animals. Living by the coast in Southern California, we all study marine biology and marine life more than the average American students, I imagine, and there are plenty of directions to go in with an umbrella term like ‘marine animals’. We really cast a wide net there (sorry)!
With the vague prompt of coastal marine animals, I took my inspiration from nature and created a classy beach themed quilt with a playful whale print backing.
Homing in on the mid-century modern beach aesthetic
I didn’t want to go too cutesy for this modern, stylish family. I wanted something they could treasure forever, even when all babies in the house are fully grown. Mid-century Modern aesthetic style feels right at home in the beach towns of Southern California; this makes sense, since the west coast is relatively young compared to the rest of the country. Our coastal suburbs seemed to spring up out of nowhere in the 20th century, and we have the plentiful breeze blocks and ranch-style homes to prove it.
I settled on this beautiful reflected sunset design, from the pattern Half Light by Taralee Quiltery.
Mid-century modern design is known for its clean lines, bold graphic shapes, and a love of nature and organic forms. For quilts, this might translate to simple, geometric patterns, retro color palettes, and a minimalist feel. The Half Light pattern captures this perfectly with its simplicity: two simple half circles hinting at a sun and moon, or a sun and its reflection, with strips in a subtle variety of widths implying the movement of light across water.
My mid-century artist inspiration for this project was Charley Harper, a Midwestern artist famous for his stylized wildlife prints and illustrations. His illustrations have been licensed for fabric, and they’re lovely, though I didn’t include any in this quilt. But Charley Harper’s nature illustrations are a quintessential example of the mid mod aesthetic, I think. He captured the essence of a creature or a form, in the barest, simplest way. He called it “minimal realism,” and described it as a way of using his art to make a little ordered picture out of a world of chaos.
‘A little order in a world of chaos’ just seemed like the perfect gift for the parents of a newborn, right?
“I don’t try to put everything in; I try to leave everything out. ”
Mid Mod Fabric Selection: A sepia-toned color story
I kept the ‘leave everything out’ mid-century soul of this quilt in mind when I chose fabrics. I went with solids and near-solids (when you know I’m a print proponent), with just enough texture to make your feet feel a little sandy.
Each fabric (and I kept it to so so few) was chosen not just for its color, but for how it plays with light and space. In addition to the solids, I looked for prints that echoed a beach sunset without being too literal. I wanted the front of the quilt to feel like a minimalist landscape painting.
“Sunset, Long Island” by Georgia O’Keeffe
I ended up using some celestial prints, the stars could be grains of sand from a distance, and there’s even some metallic accents in there, just like there are on the beach.
I chose a mix of muted sunset tones: dusty charcoal, deep teal, muted turquoise, warm apricot, and gentle sepia—Kodachrome filtered colors—with a shot of bright lime, to keep it fresh and current, solidly retro, rather than simply dated.
The final palette is stylishly organic: sandy dunes at golden hour, fading light on gently rolling ocean waves. It is calming for babies, and hopefully appealing to stylish and design-loving parents.
Special finishing touches and a whale of a backing
I dedicated the back of the quilt to the expectant mother’s favorite of all animals: whales. It is no surprise that she loves whales. Whales make champion mothers, their calves become their top priority, to whom they dedicate months or even years.
This modern block-print whale fabric is the perfect complement to the minimal front design. Dutch fabric designer Loes van Oosten created these block print-style whales with the perfect geometry to fit the mid-mod vibe. And these wonky grumpy whales take the sophisticated sensibilities of the front and turn them on their head. They keep things playful and silly, which is just what you want to wrap a baby up in!
As someone who has just started playing around with linocut prints (a kind of block printing), I can tell you that the imperfections in a block printed graphic are a feature, not a bug. In traditional block printing (which this fabric print is only mimicking), a graphic is carved out of a block with hand tools, inked up with a roller, and then pressed down onto fabric or paper. The human pressure that creates the print has a little human wobble to it. The lines have some blur. The negative space might have a little noise or ‘chatter’.
Made by humans, where the imperfections are the best features; I can’t imagine a better metaphor for parenting babies.
I went the extra mile with that quilting, although it hardly shows. But I know it’s there, and it was put there with love! I stitched horizontal straight lines across the quilt, but I matched my thread colors to their corresponding fabrics underneath. I knew I had lime green thread for a reason.
Making a quilt is a slow process of creation and human effort. I use a sewing machine, but I can’t automate any parts of it. I love my slow craft, and I love making pieces of art that live alongside people because they are functional, too.
And now a new baby will be wrapped in this joyful, colorful representation of beach sunset nostalgia, and imbue this tiny, huggable artwork with a whole new history. I left everything out, and now they can put everything in!
