I love this quilt. It is simply sweet and joyful. It came together quick as anything and that is satisfying too. My niece is expecting her third child in January. She is such a wonderful mom to her two daughters. She has a huge balancing act to juggle these days with a busy career as an attorney in the Bay Area, mom to two girls ages 3 and 5 and a baby due in a few months. As with their first two babies, they have chosen not to find out the gender of this baby so I kept this project unisex as far as color schemes go. I am excited to meet this baby and especially to hear the name that she/he will be given. My niece’s husband is from Ireland and their girls have beautiful Irish names (Ciara and Roisin). I expect this baby will have an equally special name.
For the first time, I used Hobb’s Heirloom batting, an 80/20 cotton and polyester batting. It has a different feel; lighter in weight and a bit puffier. I stippled it with a wide, open pattern to keep that lofty feel.
Another satisfying bit about this project is that it required not one trip to the store. I had every bit of this in my stash. From charm squares to background fabric and from backing to batting and binding – it was all from my stash. That is fantastic. All too often I end up buying fabric for this or that and to just pick from what I have and get a sweet quilt as a result; that is what it is all about. (Lately, I have really been thinking about the amount of fabric I have accumulated over the past three years. It is time to use it. There are so many pretty projects waiting for me in that closet!)
The backing is a cute text print that has been languishing on the shelf for a good two years. It is from a line called 8 Days a Week and was put out by Windham fabric. I only had one yard of it so I added a top and bottom border in this pretty cheddar yellow solid that I thrifted a while back. I think it is adorable and this baby will be one step ahead learning to read cursive at such an early age. 😉
The binding is a Riley Blake print that I purchased a while ago on a whim. Fortunately, the colors worked perfectly with this quilt. More of that cheddar yellow, some blue and green tones that are just right.
The icing on the cake is that I actually labeled the quilt. (I never think to do this!!) I framed the label with the binding fabric. (I blurred out their last name for privacy.)
And now comes the part where I tell the maddening part of this whole project – it is that darn quilty math. When I cut the triangles for the side setting and corner setting triangles, I cut them too small. I didn’t see this until after I quilted the whole thing. So every. single. point is cut off with from the binding. Go ahead, take a look – it’s quite apparent. I feel terrible because while this child will be able to read cursive and recite the months of the year, he/she won’t know that a square has four points…. Ok. That is enough negativity. It is a sweet quilt and I know my niece will love it. That is all that matters.
Linking to my favorites – find them at the top of the page, under Link Ups.
What a cute quilt! Who’s going to notice those cut off points? I suspect only you (if you’re like me). I’m quite sure this quilt will be well loved for many years to come!
Thanks Wendy. I know that we all are our own worst critic. It just made me mad to see that I hadn’t left enough allowance with the setting triangles. Oh well. Such is life!! You are very sweet tho. 🙂
Bernie I think this is gorgeous! I love the way your colors came together (your lessons about color, scale, and value really took!), and your backing and binding are perfect. Yes it is satisfactory to complete something from stash. When I packed, I was horrified to find out how much fabric I’ve accumulated, yet I have placed 2 more (small) orders since I moved! :-0
Does the small percentage of polyester in the batting make it less apt to shrink?
I know you niece will be thrilled. Can’t wait to hear if it’s a boy or girl and the Irish name!
As for the 80/20 batting, I am not really sure. I would think there would be less shrinkage. Honestly, I bought it because it was on sale and I figured I may as well give it a try. I haven’t washed the baby quilt yet but I plan to. I’ll let you know. 🙂
Oh, so sweet indeed! And if all the points are cut off, it’s consistent and you planned it. Wink wink. What a lucky wee one!
Haha…. It wasn’t entirely planned but ok, we can say that. 😉 It turned out nicely and that is good enough for me. How is everything in your part of the world? Hopefully good. Enjoy the weekend Janine.
Like the bright colors, well done
Lovely! And I never even noticed the cutoff points until you mentioned them. The little one is going to love this!
Well, the little one probably won’t give a hoot but I think the mama will like it. After two babies, I am sure the baby supplies are looking a bit worn. Nice to have a few fresh things. I am secretly hoping it is a boy since they have two little girls already, but we will see! Mid-January should be a fun time – Kyle’s wedding and this baby – both are supposed to happen within the same week. Fun stuff!
Every baby deserves their very own brand new quilt! Especially one as sweet as this one.
Love the quilt! Very nice job with the colors!
The babe will never care about those points, but it will know the love you have for him/her. The eight days a week print is fantastic for the backing, and congratulations on the finish in plenty of time!
I am happy it is finished with time to spare. Nice to not feel rushed. I just loved that fabric. I bought it from an Etsy shop so long ago and am happy to have found a fun use for it. What is it about text prints – I love them.
I love that little quilt – and I’m so impressed that you could make the entire thing out of your stash, including the backing! That’s where I always have to go back to the store. I thought the same thing about the square points as the other commenters. No one will ever notice – plus the inner squares still have their points! Nice finish!
Diann, usually the backing trips me up as well. Since this was a small quilt, I got lucky. I don’t have many pieces of fabric that are larger than 1/2-1 yard. So not usually enough for a backing. It was kind of cool tho – to just shop in my closet. Hope all is well!
This quilt is absolutely darling, Bernie! I LOVE that backing fabric. It’s quite impressive that everything came from your stash. Isn’t it crazy how whacked off points drives us nuts, because we know we did it, but no one else usually notices.
Yep – cutting off the points is pretty darn irritating. Not much to be done about it tho. Overall, I am happy with this one so it’s all good. Take care Tish!
Oh, this is just darling! It’s a perfect baby quilt for your niece and her newest family member.
Those points on the edges aren’t missing, they just have a very important job to do. Those squares are the ones that were picked especially to use their points to hold the binding on. It’s a very hard job, gripping the binding with just a tiny piece of your corner, and only the very wisest and strongest squares get to do it! Kind of like when the wildebeests make a circle and put the babies in the center: the strongest ‘beests use their rear hooves to protect the more vulnerable herd members 🙂
That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it!
Oh Louise, you get the award for best comment yet. Love your story! Thanks so much – I appreciate your kindness. 🙂
Have a great weekend.
There are a lot of complete squares in this beautiful quilt so the few around the edge won’t matter. It’s a really fun quilt and I agree with Yvonne the baby will know she/he is loved.
Thank you Lisa. It all worked out fine. The quilt is a cute one and I will be excited to see some pictures of the baby and the quilt together. 🙂
Really lovely quilt. Nothing can take away the sweetness of it – certainly not the missing points!
Thank you Allison! I appreciate the sweet words. Hope all is well with you. 🙂
Yep! Quilting continues in this post-Brexit land! ?
I just love it. So bright and pretty. Wouldn’t have noticed any mistakes in a million years so I am pretty sure the baby won’t! 🙂
bright and lovely quilt. Love the backing too.
Hello Bernie,
Such a lovely sweet quilt, and so many parallels with the last little quilt I made (boy or girl, just from the stash and an Irish connection…) You guessed it – your quilt is this week’s featured project at Free Motion Mavericks – thank you for linking up!
Love, Muv
Thank you! I am so glad you like it. It will be fun to give this to my niece when she is up here for the Thanksgiving holiday. I just finished another baby quilt of an entirely different sort. I will link that one up tomorrow – I haven’t finished writing the post yet. Take care Muv!