Winn's Baby Quilt

Recently, I was commissioned to create a baby quilt for the newborn son of an avid fisherman.  The client asked that the baby's name be embroidered on the quilt and selected the fishing bear applique. She left the rest up to me.  I LOVE it when that happens!

Color selection came first.  Lately, while perusing Pinterest for nursery ideas (I have another grandson on the way!), I've noticed gray being used in nurseries.  It's a great departure from the traditional pinks and blues, in my opinion!

With the fishing theme in mind, aqua blue seemed the natural choice for a secondary color.  I'm in love with the combination of colors!



This quilt began with strips of varying widths ranging from about 3" to about 7".  No pattern here...  if you follow my blog, you know I rarely use a pattern.  Too many rules!

Next, the appliques were added: the bear, the baby's name on an oval patch, and two trout. That bear is so cute!

Then came my favorite part, the quilting!  I used my midarm quilter for the free motion quilting, which included some wavy lines to resemble water and pebbling to resemble, well, pebbles in the water.  I also quilted the outlines of several trout "swimming" across the quilt. 

The quilt is backed in the aqua and white crosshatch fabric and bound with one of the gray prints.  

Making it was tons of fun!

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A Special Baby Quilt

A dear friend is expecting her first grandchild any day now.  I wanted to make a quilt for the baby, but wanted to use up some of my scraps.  I found plenty in my chosen colors of gray pink and turquoise.  

Not being one to follow a pattern, I just jumped in and started making little nine patch blocks from 2 1/2 inch squares.  To bring some unity to the blocks, I used a white square in the center of each.  I pieced the blocks with more white Kona sashing, adding a wide strip on which I'd embroidered (by machine) the baby's name. 

 Here's the finished product.

I wish I'd taken some closeups, because the quilting is hard to see...  I quilted pebbles using white Aurifil everywhere you see white.  The rest was left unquilted.  The quilt is bound in a tiny gray chevron and backed with a pink print. 

I also forgot to take a picture of the back, and now the quilt is no longer with me!  I will confess, however, that I wasn't nearly as happy with the appearance of the back as I was with the front.  In my attempt to add lots of texture, I quilted around each pebble 3-4 times.  It looks a little messy on the back.

What did I learn with this quilt?  First, pebbling is VERY time- and thread-consuming!  Next,  I still have lots of work to do on accurate piecing.  (But thankfully, the heavy quilting hides a multitude of sins!)  I learned it might be a good idea to match bobbin thread to backing fabric when doing heavy quilting like pebbling.  Lastly, I learned that I LOVE PEBBLING!!!  Can't wait to do more!