Prince Charming Baby Boy Quilt Finish

My sister asked me back a few months ago if I would make a quilt for her sister-in-law's new baby when he or she arrived, and I very happily agreed because I love making baby quilts. We decided to wait for the baby to be born as they didn't know if they were expecting a boy or a girl, and I'm not a huge fan of gender neutral quilts when there are so many lovely fabrics out there for baby boys and girls.

Baby Tom duly arrived a few weeks ago and I soon got started on his quilt. If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook, you'll have seen my progress pictures as I worked on this. (I love, love, LOVE Instagram - I just love being able to snap a picture and upload it straight away, with very few words needed! So, well, so...instant!! If you're not using it, and you have a smart phone, I'd definitely recommend it, it's fun and totally addictive. If you do, I'm @sewfairyface, say hi!)

I decided to a boy version of the Princess Charming quilt I made last year. I love working with charms, and, having a pretty big supply of large scraps in novelty prints as well as an extensive (*ahem*) stash, it allowed me to showcase lots of them.

 

 I just love the combination of owls, zebras, whales, beetles, birds and other "critters", alongside the cars, bikes, trains and trucks. There's even a pirate in there! I used the two Ann Kelle train and car prints as my starting point for the colour palette, with blue, orange, green and brown as the dominant colours and I am happy with how the colours balanced out, it feels bright and vibrant and cheery, just perfect for a little boy. 

 Similarly to the quilt I made last year, I embroidered baby's name on this one. As Tom is such a lovely, short little name, I decided to do a more elaborate letter style so it wouldn't be lost on the white panel. I used perle cotton #8 for this, in a vibrant turquoise colour, and I used a stem stitch which gives fantastic definition and presence.

I'm always slightly nervous doing hand embroidered letters, there's a lot of potential for them to go wrong, and if they're not good they ruin the look of a quilt and detract from a polished finish. But, happily, with slow and careful work, I got this looking pretty close to how I imagined it. I had some little circle appliques left over from Mr D's Circles quilt, the very last pieces I have of Laurie Wisbrun's elephants and the monkeys from the original Hooty Hoot prints, and I was thrilled to use them here.

I backed it with a blue print I've had in my stash quite a while from Sheri Berry's Child's Play with Kate and Nate for Northcott. I wish I had bought more of these prints when they were out, it was a really lovely line.

I also inserted some strips of the backing fabric into my binding - I've seen this look on other quilts previously and liked it a lot. I randomly pieced 4 strips of differing lengths in, one on each side and I love how it looks like the binding has disappeared in parts from the back.

 This quilt measures approx 38 x 50 and is a lovely baby size. It's gone off now to my sister to be gifted to baby Tom and I hope he will enjoy it and get lots of use from it. Linking up to Finish It Up Friday over at Crazy Mom Quilts and Lets Hear it for the Boy at 733 Blog.

P.S. Don't forget to enter my great Seamstar giveaway here - it runs till Monday 12th August.