Medallion Baby Quilt

So far, 2015 is off to a great start for me in my quilting pursuits.  True to form, I work better under a deadline and managed my first finish of the year in a mere 3 days :)

 I found out several months ago that a good friend and co-worker's wife was pregnant with their first baby and had been planning to make them a quilt since they made the announcement  Of course with me binge watching Gilmore Girls and Orange is the New Black slacking off, and with Holiday crazy-ness, I didn't get a start until after Christmas even though I knew the baby shower was quickly approaching.

I got a copy of of Angela Pingel's A Quilter's Mixology and from the moment I picked it up, I wanted to make every single quilt in it.  I thought the Medallion Baby Quilt would be a good start and perfect for a gift for the expecting couple.  Angela's instructions for how to sew the curves and the patterns are fabulous.  I will definitely be making more quilts from this book :)






Keeping #SewMyStash2015 in mind, I took stock of my fabric stash and did an initial sketch and pull.

The hardest part for me was cutting the templates accurately with the curves.  I purchased "heavy weight" template plastic from Joann's several months ago, but it was total junk and my rotary cutter sliced right through it and my pieces weren't accurate at all.  Frustrated, I broke down and bought Marti Mitchell's Drunkard's Path templates which made the job so much easier!  I ended up getting all the sizes available so I can make other quilts in the book more easily :)  The proportions aren't exactly the same as the templates Angela has in the book, but I think it still looks great.

Other than the difficulty cutting, the quilt came together so quickly.  Ryan actually made a comment that if I could finish this in 3 days, why had I been working on our bed quilt for a year and a half (because this quilt only has 72 pieces and is baby sized!)  The top is made of a variety of prints, entirely from my stash.  Each block finishes at 7" square.

For the quilting, I decided to go simple and just concentric circles using my walking foot.  The circles are randomly spaced over the quilt at 1/2" or 1 1/2" increments.  I used a lovely blue, white and pink variegated Aurifil from the Tula Pink collection.

After a quick poll of my Instagram friends, I chose a print from Anna Maria Horner's Field Study for the binding.  It's completely by chance that the print contained all the colors that I used in the quilt.  I had just enough to finish off the binding (another 1/2 yard used from the stash!)  I machine stitched the binding down since I was on a deadline and for durability.  I found a dark purple Gutterman I had in my thread stash that blended really well.

The backing is the only fabric I purchased for the quilt.  I knew the baby's room was a minty green, so I thought this large scale Heather Bailey Up Parasol print would be perfect.  The pattern calls for 2 1/2 yards for the backing, but I only ended up using a yard and a half since the quilt finished at 42"x42".

I gifted the quilt at the baby shower and soon-to-be mommy and daddy both loved it.  I hope the baby will love and use it for a long time :)

Specs at a Glance:
Top: 7 inch Drunkard's Path blocks in various cotton prints
Finished size: 42" square
Pieced and Quiltied with Auriful 50 thread
Batting: Quilter's Dream 100% Cotton Batting
Pattern from A Quilter's Mixology
Finished: January 3, 2014

Linking up with TGIFF and #sewmystash2015on Instagram

TGIFF: SSM#4

Happy Valentines day Lovlies!  I was hoping to post this last week but we didn't have power... no power = no internet = no blogging = sadface :(

Have I mentioned how much I love swaps?  Well I am a glutton for swapping, so I had to participate in the Sew Sew Modern #4 Swap over on Flickr.  Check out the Flickr pool to see all the amazing goodies that have been swapped :)

I can't reveal who my partner was for this round, because she hasn't received yet (the snow + ice + no power made me a few days late sending).

This was my initial fabric pull (sorry IG pic).  I wanted my patchwork to mirror the Pennant print from KOI.  When I started cutting, I decided to take out the Salt Water print because it didn't look great cut into tiny 2.5" triangles, it was a little too olive drab to fit in with the other prints.  I also ended up adding two other KOI prints for variety.

In-progress (also from IG). I ended up staggaring the rows to try to mirror the inspiration fabric :)  And I went with a scrappy low volume background.  The flying geese are 1.5x5.5" attached to another 1.5x5.5" strip of low volume.

And here's the finished pillow.  I am so pleased with how it turned out.  Especially since I just cut and sewed, with no pre-planning.  It still ended up square!

I did an off center chevron following the point of one of the geese.  The lines are 1" apart done in a hot pink Gutterman thread.  I also zig-zag stitched the binding on, because inevitably I miss a few spots on the back when machine binding with a straight stitch.

I finished off the back with the Pennant print and did a simple envelope closure (I'm too much of a chicken to try an invisible zipper!)

For the "small item" I took my scraps and made some scrappy coasters, they're so cute :)

And what swap would be complete without some extras :)  I included a lil' twister ruler and a cute ball of variegated Perle cotton.  Since it's headed overseas I wasn't sure what the restrictions were on sending food, so I opted not to send any candy along this time.

I hope you like it partner!  I had a great time making it for you!!!

Linking up with Thank Goodness it's Finished Friday!