Hooray! Here’s the first finished quilt of the four I’ve been working on all month, and I can share it today because I gifted it yesterday — it’s for my friend and coworker Larissa’s baby boy! He’ll be making his entrance into the world no later than next Thursday, so I was able to deliver it just in time.
I took this photo shortly after washing and drying the finished quilt, which I like to do as a final step to get everything all soft and cuddly…but that does make it wrinkly too. The direct sunlight of early afternoon just makes the wrinkles look ridiculous, doesn’t it? (Note to self: learn how to take better quilt photos.)
Ah, that’s a bit better. The design is based on West Elm’s Offset Stripe rug — rugs are such a good source of quilt ideas! The fabric is Kona cotton in cloud and deep blue. Piecing the top was easy, but I did spend time at the start to do the math, figure out what dimensions worked best, mock up the design in Illustrator, and figure out how to optimize my cutting. I plan to write it up as a pattern when I get a chance — hopefully in the next few weeks.
I used really simple straight-line quilting and kept it pretty sparse…just because. I think this would also look really great with some spiral or swirl quilting, but that’s just not in my skillset yet and I didn’t want to do any trial-and-error on something I planned to give away.
The back is a light blue star print I got at Joann’s — one of the same prints I used in the zig zag star quilt I made more than 2 years ago. I hadn’t planned that going in, but it ended up being a really nice match color-wise. I inserted a couple rectangles of light blue just to add a little something different and echo the stripes on the front.
The binding matches the dark blue stripes on the front. And once again, the binding kind of sucks. I am SO FRUSTRATED that I can’t seem to get the hang of precise machine binding — I do all this work to produce a quilt I really like, and then practically ruin it with my wonky binding skills. Argh. I know in the grand scheme of things it’s really not that bad, so I take a breath and let it go…but dang it, I want it to be just right!
Still, all in all I’m proud of this one and I hope baby boy gets some good use out of it!
Oh, that’s great! I like it!
Congrats on your first finish of the month! I have three quilts for a sibling sets on my to-do list this month. I just finished quilting the first one. The backing is the very same blue star fabric you used! I just bought a dreamy new machine (Pfaff Quilt Expression 4.2, aka Pfiona) that has already greatly improved my quilting. I’m hoping it magically improves my binding as well, but no matter how many tutorials I read or watch, I still have a hard time getting the stitches even on the second side. Sigh…
Yes exactly!!! Argh for you, but I must admit to feeling somewhat comforted that I’m not the only one who has trouble getting good stitches on the back. I’ve watched SO many tutorials too. Argh.
I am sure that Larissa and her new little boy will love it! Great work.