A Flowery Finish

I love little pram quilts. They are so sweet and pretty and so practical. My last two babies were winter babies and I got so much use out of little quilts and blankets when we were out and about, I loved having something pretty to put on their prams/car seats/buggies, particularly if it was a little quirky or different.

So when I get the chance to make a pram quilt, I love it. A friend of one of my best friends had a new baby girl before Christmas, and I happily agreed to make a little quilt for her for my friend to gift her. This sweet little retro flowers quilt is the result.

I used 3 Bonnie and Camille prints - 2 from the Scrumptious line, and one from Ruby. The soft pink is an Aneela Hoey print. They all play so nicely together. This was one of those quilts where there was no fretting about fabrics, no fabric auditioning. I made the blue Ruby block first. The next morning when I woke up, I knew exactly what fabrics I wanted to use to work with it. I just love when a quilt top just comes together for you, almost as if you had it in your head all along just waiting to come out.

This was a lovely little block to make and came together quite quickly - possibly because I'm now totally comfortable with curved piecing thanks to Leanne's fabulous tute. I never thought, after my first miserable attempt at curves back in December 2011, I would ever say this about curves, but I really enjoyed sewing those blocks and they came out pretty close to perfect! I used my Accuquilt Go! Baby to cut the curved block pieces using the drunkard's path die - I really love it for those tricky pieces. I'd never attempt blocks like this, or hexies, without it.

I had a soft pink ditsy flower print in my stash for a long long time that I used for the back - its a very soft lightweight cotton, not dissimilar to a lawn, and its beautifully soft as a backing. I quilted it with Aurifil 50wt white thread - I flew through the quilting as its so small, and when I washed it, the shrinkage was just about perfectly giving it a lovely crinkly texture.

The binding is a cotton poplin in a heart print - colour wise its a pink toned red and works nicely with the rest of the colours.

This little quilt measures 30" x 36" and has gone to it's new home where I believe it was very happily received and I hope it gets lots and lots of use.

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 :-)