Quick! We need a Crib Quilt!

Is is just me, or is everyone having babies these days?

I had another friend's baby shower to go to this past weekend (not to mention the two surprise 60th birthday parties we were invited to...), and it really snuck up on me! I figured since it took me nine months to crochet the last baby blanket I made, I should try a different technique- so I gave quilting a shot!


Because I started it at 9:30 on Friday night, I obviously didn't get the quilt done by Saturday morning. But I did get pretty far. I think that getting an entire quilt pieced and sandwiched and partially quilted in a few hours is pretty good! I used a fusible batting for lack of curved safety pins, although I think next time I will try the pins instead. I ended up fusing the extra batting to my rug! Oops.

Here's what it looked like before the shower (the blue tape is my guideline for the diagonal top stitching):


I ordered several modern quilting books about a month ago, and I had been itching to try a few of the designs. This cute, bright-colored crib quilt was modified from a pattern called Basket Weave, found in this book. It took me a while to figure out the math to convert it from a queen-sized quilt to a crib-sized one, and it's not exactly proportional to the original, but who cares! It's a hand-made quilt! 

Here it is with the diagonal quilt lines finished:


Then I added straight lines through the colored "woven" strips:


The quilting really pops on the solid pink back of the quilt.


My conversion math wasn't the best, so I didn't quite have enough of the pink for the backing. I added a strip of tan to line up with the tan strip on the front and voila! Big enough fabric!

 

Finally, it was time to add the binding. I shouldn't say finally... I guess it really only took about 6 hours to get to this point. I decided to go with the lime green binding since it's my favorite color. Here's how the quilt looks now:


All that's left is to hand-stitch the binding to the back of the quilt. That may take a bit of time, but at least a quilt this little is pretty portable!


My thoughts on this project:
Most of the top stitching is kind of wonky- I never used a walking foot before and I'm still getting used to it. It's also a bit of a challenge to stuff a quilt through my sewing machine! Overall, it's not bad for a first attempt at quilting- I actually think it's fantastic! It will bring little Eden Grace many years of joy- and there's a good chance it will actually be finished before she's born!


Here it is! Ready to comfort a newborn baby! 




Now to start thinking about the next baby project... something for my first little nephew, due in June!

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