Baby Quilt - Little Boy Blue and Sunshine, Too!



"Little Boy Blue and Some Sunshine, Too!"

       Another baby has arrived in my big extended family!   Hello, Baby Christopher!  I wanted to make him a little quilt, so I sorted through my stash of blues, and also wanted to use the adorable "kitty on the yellow telephone" fabric that I highlighted in my last baby quilt.  I have lots going on now, so this quilt needed to be quick!  

Pulling fabrics to see how they work together. 

      I decided to go with fairly large 6 inch blocks finished, so I cut 6 1/2 inch squares from 11 fabrics -- some old, some new.



My first thought was to simply block them together.  This photo shows some of the blocks on my design board.  I wasn't too crazy about this set up. 

The flannel on my design board is white, so I separated  the squares and decided I liked that look better.  I ended up cutting 1 1/2 inch strips of Kona White, for a one inch spacer between the blocks. 

I liked the blocks with the white strips much better.  The white seemed to set the different blocks apart  just enough to highlight each fabric. 

       I have been waiting for the right quilt to experiment with quilting with rows of quilting, instead of the all over free motion loops or stippling that I usually use.   I have seen many quilts in the blogging world that have very organic looking rows of quilting. 

       I decided to use some yellow quilting thread, and with my walking foot, quilted fairly straight lines about one inch apart.  I couldn't believe how fast this went! 

 



Here is a close up showing the straight line quilting.  This photo also shows the yellow batik that I used.  It looks solid from afar, but has a great little pattern close up!

     Once I had the 1 inch lines, I went back and sewed long curvy lines between them, so there is basically a line every 1/2 inch on the top of the quilt.  I wasn't sure how this would work out, but I absolutely love it.

A close up of putting the curvy line in between the 1 inch rows. 

This photo shows the finished quilting, before the quilt was washed.   I generally wash my fabric before I cut it for piecing.  

Here are the blue and yellow blocks after washing.  I use Warm and Natural cotton for the batting, and wash my quilts in warm water, and put them in the dryer them to get that nice crinkly look that comes from the batting shrinking up a bit.   



This photo shows the quilted rows. I used a solid yellow for the binding



I like how the quilt reflects the colors of the sunset!  

     I used a few of my little juvenile prints in this quilt, plus some checks, dots, solids and little overall prints:


I am not even sure what these are?  Smurfs? 

The yellow three little pigs print.  I must have purchased yards of this way back when. 

I love this fabric!

Little blue scottie dogs. 

Little dutch boy and girl.  I think this uses up the last of that fabric.

The back of the quilt.  I am trying to use up my stash of fabric, although I keep buying more (!!)  I used homespun for the back.  I have a lot of it, and I think it washes up so softly.  

       This was a quick and simple quilt to put together, but I absolutely love how it turned out.  It could easily be made in a weekend.  I have every intention of making up some more quilts using this pattern.  I will certainly do more of the curvy row quilting.  

My good sport quilt holder with the finished quilt.

      I will be shipping this off to Baby Christopher this weekend.  The summer is flying by.  Enjoy!

Take care,
Gretchen