Saturday, July 11, 2015

Mint and Gray: A Baby Quilt

We celebrated another one of my teaching friends at the end of the school year; she's having a baby this summer! The 6th grade team threw Jen a baby shower on one of our in-service days. I had the option of contributing to a group gift... but I decided that every baby needs a quilt, and this baby was going to get one from me. :)


I found out, through excited conversations with the mommy-to-be, that the baby's gender is not going to be revealed until he or she is born. They also want everything to be gender neutral so it can be used again (VERY practical, IMHO!). I'm definitely one of those people who doesn't prescribe to traditional gender roles or traditional color schemes for babies, so I was more than thrilled to make this gender neutral quilt of mint and gray to match baby's future nursery.

Sadly, mint was a non-existent color in my stash. I tend to collect a lot of saturated colors, which is probably why. Anyway, I did a little shopping at the Intrepid Thread, and I have very few leftovers. I think it's a great color for a baby quilt, but I'm still not digging light/pastel colors (for me, anyway).

 
Both colors look a bit different in the light of my guild meeting, but you can see the fabrics better.

I was itching to make a wonky cross quilt (thanks to Quilts From The Attic and A Quilter's Table). However, I wanted this quilt to feature one large cross, so I started there and then built up the left side with scraps. I always enjoy creating an improv quilt, and this was no exception. I bought the Alison Glass fabric for the border without seeing it in person first, and I was pleased to see that, paired with all the green, the gray shows up a bit green itself. It made a perfect border!

I quilted this using my topographical free motion quilting design. The whole quilt probably took about a half hour to quilt. Quick, pretty, and satisfying all rolled into one! You, too, can FMQ! (I like that. It rhymes.)

Jen is an all-around wonderful lady and teacher, and I'm so happy for her family. I hope this quilt gets a lot of love!


9 comments:

  1. I really love this color scheme for a baby. It might not be "you", but you did an awesome job putting it together. And a half hour to quilt?!?! That rocks!

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  2. "Sadly" you didn't have mint in your stash?! I love when i find there's a hole in my stash; it's an excuse to go fabric shopping!

    Congratulations on a beautiful -- and fast! -- finish. You seem to be having a very productive summer. : )

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  3. Nice baby quilt! Since you seem to be encouraging me to FMQ, I have a couple questions. I am FMQ my giraffe quilt backed with minky. Any Advice? What kind of machine needle should I use; quilting, topstitch, knit? I am outlining the giraffe and doing some free motion in the body and background. When outlining do I use the FMQ foot and method or just the regular straight stitch one requiring lots of turning the quilt but I think more able to keep to a straighter line? Karen

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  4. This looks fantastic. You are making me want to machine quilt. I'll be trying it soon. Question: What are your favorite resources for someone starting out with machine quilting? Do you recommend a specific book or Craftsy video class?

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  5. Pretty colors and fun design! Well done!

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  6. You know me, I love these colors together! And that AG border at the top and bottom! Also, can we just always make aqua/teal the new "gender neutral"? Because I'm so sick of seeing pastel yellow and green.

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  7. I love watching your skills grow and grow and grow!!! This is so precious and so well made! xo

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  8. I also asked for gender neutral colors so we can reuse, and we also didn't find out the sex until birth, for one because we really didn't care and two because we knew that would cut down on the number of "boy" or "girl" specific things we would receive.

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Let's start a conversation! I love comments and I'd be happy to reply to all who have an email address accessible. Thanks for commenting!

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