Sunshine & Science Baby Quilt

     One of my nieces, a scientist, was expecting a baby girl, and I immediately thought about making a quilt using the science critter fabric from my daughter's computer case project. I pulled all sorts of other fabrics from my stash to see what might work with that fabric.  I was a bit torn, because the fabrics I was considering were not the traditional pinks.

The fabric pull - I love all of these fabrics, but  too many and too busy for the quilt I had in mind.  I still have some three little pigs fabric, which I have been trying to use up for years!   Another time, perhaps.

The fabric finalists.  I took my color cues from the floral at the end (turquoise, red, deep yellow and white) all of which were found in the science critter fabric.

    Last year I finished my turquoise triangle quilt, and wanted to try something a little different. I wanted to try bigger triangles, and used the template from this See Kate Sew triangle tutorial.  

Laying out the triangles on my design "wall".  I  pieced some flannel together, and use binder clips on an old wooden folding screen.  Not perfect, but it works.   You can see in the one corner that I was still trying to use the turquoise three little pigs fabric, but it really wasn't working for me.  

This fabric is too cute!

I also quite like this little bird fabric!  (There is some pink!)

                      The flower fabric.  This was a bit thinner than the others, so I made sure to use white batting.

     Somehow, I failed to fully follow the instructions (my fault, not the tutorial), and didn't get nice pointy ends for the triangles, but they are all the same, and look fine to me.

     I also tried a new technique with the batting.  For Christmas, the trusty quilt holder gave me a basket of notions from the quilt shop, with a tag that it was the "quilter's survival kit!" Among the items was a product to fuse batting.  I had two pieces of white Warm and White which, if put together, would fit this quilt perfectly. 

     I overlapped the two pieces slightly, and taking note of the width of the tape, I cut a gentle curving line.  That made it easier to have the pieces fit snugly together.  I then followed the instructions,and it seemed to work well.  I couldn't feel the tape when I was quilting. 

The gentle curving line

     I used an all over loopy quilting, with white Aurifil thread. I think this is a happy quilting motif.

     I had a great Ikea fabric for the backing, but while I was happily doing my loops, I neglected to check the back.  Ooops!   Luckily,  it was an easy fix!

          I used a bright yellow batik for the binding.   The finished quilt is 33 1/2 x 47 inches.  

My trusty quilt holder braving the cold.

Lake Erie, nearly fully frozen, in March! 

Welcome to the world, baby Arwen!  Stay warm! 

Can't wait for spring! 

Take care,
Gretchen