Michael Miller came out with this cute Safari Friends fabric line and I couldn’t resist it for a quilt for a baby boy.  I love blue and white together, and the grey in the fabric was the perfect third color.  The line also had a really cute dotted fabric and then I pulled some great Kona solids to match the colors in the fabric.

I really wanted to highlight the safari fabric on the front of the quilt, but the characters on the fabric were so large that it would not have made sense to cut those into 2″ or 3″ squares – the animals would have been lost.  So I ended up cutting 6.5″ squares of that fabric and then did 6.5″ nine-patch blocks out of the other fabrics.

I made the nine-patch blocks by cutting 2.5″ strips of fabric, sewing them into 3-strip sets and then subcutting those into 2.5″ segments.  I then mixed them up and sewed three segments together to get the nine-patch blocks.

The quilt ended up being 36″ x 48″, with 48 blocks total.

I used a different batting with this quilt and I think maybe I have found the perfect batting.  It was Quilter’s Dream Cotton batting and I really liked everything about it.  I use Warm and Natural most of the time, but this batting can be a bit stiff (it does soften up the more you wash your quilt) and can cause creases in a quilt when the quilt is folded for a long time.  I have used Hobbs 80/20, but that batting did not have enough weight for me – it was too light.  The Quilter’s Dream was softer than the Warm and Natural but had more heft to it than the Hobbs.  I can’t wait to try this batting on a larger quilt, where I will use two layers of it (which I’ve been doing lately with my larger quilts).  I’ll keep you posted.

I used the Safari Friends animal fabric for the backing and I just think it’s so cute. I quilted the whole thing with Aurifil thread – Light Delft Blue – at 4.0 stitches per inch.  I usually do a lot more quilting, but because the front of the quilt was a little busy, I felt I didn’t want to quilt every single line, so I outlined the larger blocks and left it at that.

The binding is a striped fabric from Hawthorne Threads.  Have you ever ordered fabric from this online shop?  Not only do they have a great selection of designer fabrics, but they digitally print their own line of fabrics and this stripe is one of those.  If you like stripes, they have a great selection and so many colors.

I used my regular machine binding technique to do the mitered binding.

And because I think they are so cute, I went ahead and make a reading pillow to go with the quilt!  The front has a pocket where you can slip a couple of books inside.

Thanks for dropping by – I hope you’re making something!

Elaine

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Pink alert!  Here is a quilt to wrap a baby girl in that is as cute as can be.  I used fabrics from the “Hip Hooray” line from Lizzie Mackay for Blend Fabrics.  This fabric is hard to find now and I’ve had it in my stash for a while, waiting to use it.

This line features a double border fabric with whimsical little animals on both of the borders.  I cut the borders off and used them on either end of the quilt.

I also took some of the border and fussy cut some of the animals out and used them for the patchwork center.  Each square ended up being 3.5″ after being sewn in.

I added a couple of more fabrics for the patchwork center, including a favorite Swiss Dot from Moda’s Essential Dot collection and a Robert Kaufman Carolina Gingham in Pink.

I used Warm and White for the batting and did the quilting with Aurifil thread in Pale Pink.

I almost never have to mark lines on my quilts. If I do, I usually use a Hera marker, which only makes creases.  But for this quilt, I really did have to mark lines so I used a Clover water soluble felt pen, which required washing the quilt afterwards to remove all the markings. I have used a Clover Chaco marker in the past, but have found that these markers don’t work hardly at all after a while.  Very disappointing!  So I would recommend the felt pen instead.  The lines washed right out nicely.

For the binding, I LOVE bias binding and a lot of fabric lines now are offering stripes on the bias, so you don’t have to actually make bias binding.   This binding fabric is from Moda’s “Dot Dot Dash” line.  I just love the look of this binding.  I cut 2.5″ crossgrain strips and used my machine binding technique.

 

The finished quilt is 37″ x 46″.   It’s a nice size to cuddle up with, use as a play mat, or just a decorative accent in a child’s room.   I’m listing it in the Shop.     (This quilt has sold)

Thanks for dropping by!
Elaine

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