Pinwheels Pram Quilt

Despite the fact that I managed to miss the wonderful Bloggers Quilt Festival for the last couple of rounds, being in that fog of late pregnancy and new baby sleeplessness, I am happy to be linking up to the Fall 2013 festival! If you're visiting for the first time, welcome to my little blog. Please do come back and visit me again! Without futher ado, read on to find out more about my little pram/baby quilt.

Our friends had a new baby boy a few weeks ago. Of course, you know what that translates to in my sewing-obsessed head: they needed a quilt for their new little boy. I'd put it on the long finger for a little while but when my hubby arranged to go and visit them this weekend, I decided I needed to get sewing pretty quickly this week.

I used Lindsay's method for making my HST blocks - its really quick and easy, with minimal cutting. You cut 2 large squares to yield 8 HST blocks. Her pattern cut to 18", but I had cut into some of the FQs I was using, so I cut mine to 12.5", which yielded me 8 x 5.5" HST blocks. I LOVE this method of making HSTs, and will definitely be using it again.

 I used a cream solid against each of the 6 fabrics I picked, I think the softness of it works well. The fabrics are a mix of different designers & lines that I put together myself with a little help from my Instagram friends :-) The navy, blue and orange were are so fresh for a little boy (I think) - it's nice to go for a colour palette that's not too traditional. The large dotty print was the inspiration print for this combo.

The backing is an IKEA kids fabric which Fiona gave me a good while ago. I love how cheery and boyish it is on the back, you could easily use this as a double sided quilt.

The last time I was in IKEA I couldn't find the bolts of kids fabric in their kids department which bothered me a bit, as I love them for backings and they are such great value too. Have they discontinued those little fabric bolts does anyone know?

I quilted it in a free motion stipple using my favourite Aurifil 50wt thread in white and it came out of the wash gloriously crinkly and soft. I pin basted this quilt too, and I am definitely going back to the pins for basting. I loved not having the sticky edges from the basting spray. 

The binding is a navy dotty poplin. This is a very little quilt - only 30" x 40", so really it is pram or crib size. I have a quilt about this size for my baby girl, and I use it all the time on her car seat, and now that she's bigger, its a perfect size to put her sitting on when she's down on the floor. I hope that baby Tadhg gets lots of use out of it and that his mum and dad like it :-)