First Boy Quilt Finished

The quilt block

Last fall, I made a quilt for the barista at the local Starbucks who made my Carmel macchiato just like I like it every time. She was expecting a baby boy. 

Little did I know at the time, another employee had had a baby boy a few months before my husband gifted the quilt. Fast forward to the end of September, I learned, through my husband, that Rachel, had had another boy. She had lamented to my husband that her first baby didn't get a quilt and now her second one didn't have one either.

Auditioning the layout 

Well. . . . I can make a couple kid quilts. Last summer, I spent a dollar at the Mt. Hood guild parking lot bazaar and filled a small bag of flannel scraps. About half of the blocks, half of the backing and all of the binding came from that bag. Note: There are enough scraps to at least two more projects!

Finished top 

The other half of the blocks either came from scraps of mine from my past projects or from my fried Martha. She would be pleased with this finish. She likely would be shocked at how quickly I stitched this project together!

A while ago, Linda at Flourishing Palms, shared a quilt block that was perfect for using scraps. I cut the sashing 1 1/2 inches by 3 1/2 inches and 1 1/2 inches by 4 1/2 inches. I made all the center 1 1/2 squares white. I sorted through my scraps cutting 3 1/2 by 4 1/2 inch rectangles into little kits. 

Template design

I made my top to contain five blocks across and six blocks down. It finished 35 inches by 54 inches. When I make this pattern again, I'll make it a little bigger . . .six blocks by seven blocks. (Linda made her project  six blocks by seven blocks.) The finished block reminds me of a package.

Pebbles stitched in the blue velour block

All of the packages are different fabrics. If there was enough scraps from the packages to become "ribbons," I cut and stitched them.

As I was coming to the last few blocks, I didn't have enough flannel to make three more "different" blocks. I wasn't planning to buy any fabric so I inserted a corduroy block that was a leftover from stitching a little girls skirt. The remaining two blocks were made out of a velour that was leftover from stitching sweatshirts.

In the finished top photo, the orange corduroy block is in the fourth row second from the right. The blue velour block is in the fifth row first block on the left. The green velour block in in the sixth row, first block on the right.

To make it easier to sew the blocks together, I pressed the seams towards the sashing on one block and away from the sashing on the block that was its neighbor. It wasn't long and I had made enough blocks for the top.

I webbed the blocks together. I did encounter a block that should have been pressed differently so I played with the layout until all the seams nested. Then I stitched the horizontal rows together. I pieced the back and pin basted the layers together. I used an 80/20 Pellon batting. The back is flannel too!

Next, I stitched in the ditch using my walking foot. My original quilting plan was to stitch diagonally through the blocks with the walking foot. I need to play more with the walking foot to increase what I like to do with it. I couldn't do it. I couldn't quilt vertical lines or horizontal lines either! 

Honestly, I could have; but, I wasn't "feeling" the walking foot. Instead, I free motion quilted the blocks. I used a red polyester thread in the needle and in the bobbin. Sometimes, I used templates and my ruler foot to stitch a pattern. Sometimes, I followed the print in the fabric. Sometimes, I stitched a filler design. The spider web design came from Christina Camelli at her A Few Scraps instagram account.

While it took me days to quilt the top, I was happy with the results. This baby can find different quilting designs, as well as different colors and motifs in the fabric prints. I didn't quilt in the sashing because I wanted another tactile feel in the quilt.

Parallel lines above and stars below

I free motioned stars, hearts, loops and leaves. The leaves are my favorite block.

Stipple top left, follow the fabric print right
and various fills bottom left examples

For the binding, I stitched together the longest 2 1/2 inch strips that I had collected from the bazaar until I had enough to go around the outer edge of the quilt. 

Spider web filler

I added the label and I had a finish! 

Hearts and leaves filler stitches

I figure I used about three yards of fabric in this project. This brings the total yardage used from my stash to 17 and one quarter yards of fabric. Finishing this project was half of goal number one on my October list. I'll finish boy quilt number 2 soon!

Label

This is one project finish for WIPs-B-Gone 2023 sponsored by Devoted Quilter. 

Back

I'm also linking to Cynthia at Oh Scrap/Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework. In addition to Martha, she is the inspiration from my scrappy projects. 

Finished front