My First Quilt!!

I can finally talk about the baby quilt that I finished almost 3 months ago!  As soon as my pal told me that she was pregnant I knew I wanted to make something handmade for the baby.  Then, as if the universe heard my request, I got an email from Spool advertising their classes.  Included in the list of classes was a beginner quilting class that takes you step-by-step through a baby or lap quilt.  Jackpot!  My class, taught by the wonderful Ashley, started at the end of October and ran into the beginning of December.  It was awesome and I had so much fun.  Having never quilted anything before, and really having no idea how to go about making a quilt, I was completely relying on the lovely ladies at Spool to guide me in the right direction.  And they were great every step of the way, from helping me pick out fabrics, to helping me figure things out when I made a mistake.  I highly recommend taking a class with them!

We FINALLY had a shower for my pal, who is going to have her baby any week now.  Not telling her about the quilting class or the quilt could possibly be my biggest accomplishment in recent years, since we sit about 4 feet away from each other at work every day.  I don’t know what I’m going to do when she leaves me for 3 months!

I had so much fun making this quilt and am so excited that I discovered what appears to be a love for quilting.  I am obsessed with this quilt, so I apologize in advance for the many photos.

No dark pictures here!  I had the foresight to bring this bad boy over to my parents' house over the weekend and take pictures that aren't in our very dark living room.

I had to pick out most of the fabric before we knew whether the baby would be a boy or girl.  For the front, I stuck to gender-neutral colors.  I love how bright and cheerful it is!

I took a chance and picked out the whales as the backing the day before we found out the gender of the baby.  I was relieved when I got the text that the baby was a boy, but I think it would have worked if the baby had been a girl (I would have chosen a more girly border and binding to offset the boyish whales). 

During class, Ashley told us that she loves handsewing the binding because it takes her back to the roots of quilting.  At the time I thought she was nuts.  I couldn't think of anything worse than sitting and hand sewing for hours.  Boy was I wrong.  I really enjoyed handsewing the binding on.  Who knew?  Plus it was fun to put the quilt through a test drive of sorts and drape it over me while I sewed.

I think the yellow and green stripey binding really ties the whole thing together.

Now for some detail shots.  Here is an apple and pear block.

And here is an owl and stripe block.

Here is the rundown of what fabric I used, all of which was bought at Spool.  I couldn’t find the name of the green with yellow flowers fabric and the yellow pattern fabric that I used for the borders.  Sorry!

Pears: Anne Kelle Metro Market

Apples: Sandi Henderson for Michael Miller, Farmers Market, Apple Delight

Lines: Anne Kelle Remix

Whales: Anne Kelle for Robert Kaufman, Urban Zoologie

Owls: Anne Kelle for Robert Kaufman, Urban Zoologie

Blue: Robert Kaufman’s Quilter’s Linen

Yellow binding: Heather Bailey Nicey Jane, Welcome Road

Up until last night when I packaged it up, I would catch myself sitting and staring at this thing, even though it’s been sitting on my sewing table or desk for a long time.  I can’t believe that I made it! 

I had a bunch of leftover fabric, including some already made patchwork blocks, so I made a small tag blanket with the scraps.  I used the pattern from Lotta Jansdotter’s Simple Sewing for Baby and then figured out the patchworking on my own.  I think I did pretty good!  Apparently babies love sucking on ribbons.  Who knew?  I can say that I have learned a whole lot about pregnancies and babies during the last 9 months!  What an educational experience.

The pattern called for different sizes of ribbon from 4-8 inches, but when I finished the blanket, the longer ribbon pieces were way too long.  I was worried that baby was going to choke on them, so I folded them over and stitched a seam in the middle so they were half as long.  It doesn’t look ideal, but I feel a lot better about the length of the ribbons.

I still had some leftover fabric and since the giraffes that I made for the Konbit Sante kits were so easy, I decided to whip up one for baby.  How adorable is this little guy?  Even though I still managed to attach the ears wrong.  I'm convinced that the pattern is marked incorrectly.  Next time I will live on the edge and ignore the pattern markings and place them as I see fit! 

Here's the whole package together.  I'm in love!

I’m not sure what my next quilt will be, but I’m super excited to have joined the quilting world and to get working on one again.