Presents I've been working on - 4

I recently completed a quilt as a gift for a lady for her niece-to-be as a baby shower gift.

She had decided she wanted a modern/fun design, with a nice soft back. We went to a fabric store, picked out all the materials, and got the supplies and then I began work on it. This type of pattern/design is slightly complicated because you have to make sure that you have straight lines to sew and can split it up into sections (so it ends up mostly straight and such as you go). It is also necessary to ensure that you leave extra fabric for seam allowance (for example if you want a square that is 12 inches next to a series of 3 inch squares when laying it out you need to make sure that each 3 inch square is really 3.5 inches as you loose a 1/4 inch for each seam). In addition, you may notice that every fabric is never touching the same fabric or within 2 blocks of it. this was intentional, so this design actually took way more thinking than a typical pattern, but is more forgiving of mistakes as it appears absolutely random.

 I also wanted to use a specific fabric for the edging, so I knew I wanted to make sure that fabric was never touching an edge. After I had finished the inside and put on the first edge, I decided it was too plain, so I added the colored border (using squares of all interior fabrics except the edge). Once I added the second border in the fabric I decided it was still too plain for a baby quilt and the ruffle was added (see picture of making the ruffle the the left - this took a LOT of fabric - 24 feet worth actually)!
This took some major effort as I had made it about twice the full diameter of the quilt and then used a thread the exact length of the outside of the quilt to ruffle the fabric the correct amount. After it was appropriately ruffled I attached it to the edge of the quilt and then pinned the entire front to the backing (which is a really soft fleece that is safe for baby bedding in a light yellow). I had to sew the entire ruffle and backing by hand as I found out that it was too thick for my sewing machine to sew without trouble. So I did it similar to a pillow case by turning it right sides together and sewing the edge in a whip stitch, flipping it inside out and then using the machine to put a seam to hold it all together and in place. Then I quilted it in the ditch of some of the squares so it would maintain the soft backing and not add to the busy front.

I then washed the whole thing to make sure all the fabric was nice and tightly sewn so the mom wouldn't have to fix anything that came apart in the wash.

Have I ever mentioned that I make sure all my quilts are machine washable? If not, I make an effort at all times to do so because I hate nothing more than not being able to treat stains and with a baby quilt it is particularly important to have something you can clean. To the right is the finished quilt which turned out adorable!

As an added bonus, I tried my hand at embroidery by adding a little message in the corner for the baby from her aunt. (this was a chain stitch I believe). I think I did a pretty good job for a first time on the embroidery, but if I ever do that again, I'm going to try to remember to do it prior to attaching the front and back as that really complicated the moving between letters. Overall, turned out wonderfully I think!