My oldest friend just had her first baby. The little boy is so incredible wanted, I can’t even tell you! When I asked the mother about what colors she would like for a baby quilt, she told me “any and all color!”. I emptied my precious fabric scraps bin and put several economy blocks together and added lots of monochrome blocks in “any and all colors”.
Every bit of fabric that I could fussy cut was pulled from my stash… I thought I had a large stash, but it mostly consist of so-called blenders; small scale patterns.
My favorite economy blocks are the ones with the ladybugs, the frog and the bunnies.
Yes, there is pink in this baby boy’s quilt… well the mother said ANY and ALL colors, right?!
I have to admit, I did find it hard to go completely multi color. Most of the time I create with a constrained color palette. Luckily when I added a dark blue border, the quilt looked better to me.
I quilted a fun swirl-hook pattern which let me dodge the bits of the block where there were many seams. If you look closely you can see that I have used some tiny pieces of fabric here and there.
A while back, when I found out the baby was on his way, I stored several cute backing fabrics away. Luckily the one with the pandas really looked best with the colors on the front.
I added a stripy multi color binding which was kind of waiting for a project like this. I like how it pulls the whole thing together.
I also created two bibs for the lovely baby boy. You can never have enough of those, right? I put a thin terry cloth on the back.
Can’t wait until I can hug the precious baby boy!
Hugs
Esther
p.s. I am linking up with:
– Confessions of a Fabric Addict for ‘Can I get a Whoop Whoop?’
– My Quilt Infatuation for ‘Needle and Thread Thursday‘.
– Crazy Mom Quilts for ‘Finish it Up Friday‘.
What lovely presents for your cherished friend and baby. Your planning for this quilt really shows. It looks like a child’s puzzle with the questions:
How many animals can you find and can you name them?
Or a “find the animals in the quilt” theme. Am sure the recipients will be smitten.
The more I look at this quilt, the more I like it. This type of quilt is called an ‘I-Spy’ quilt, so you are absolutely right about how it will be used!
Lots of hugs
Esther
that’s an absolutely beautiful quilt, Esther. The Mum-to-be was right to ask for “any and all” . . . a true rainbow of fun.
Yes a true rainbow! it really fits the parents personality, laid-back and fun!
Hugs
Esther
Fun quilt and very practical bibs!
Thank you for your kind words!
Esther
LOVE love love this quilt! You pulled together so many awesome fabrics and how wonderful that you could use your scraps. I bet with every scrap you pulled out you remembered when you used it the first time! Reminds me of an old Harry Chapin song, “Flowers are Red” where “there are so many colors in a rainbow…and I use every one”! The hook swirls are prefect too. I am working on a quilt that has a lot of seams and will be trying to use your idea to quilt with the same pattern. Oh that I was brave enough to tackle a scrap quilt! Thank you for the post – so wonderful!
Hello barbara! I think I would call this baby quilt my first ever scrappy project. I am glad that I could use the little pieces of fabric I had. Some of these were samples I got when I ordered from a fabric store.
The hook-swirl is one of my favorites freemotion designs. If you haven’t tried it before, get some practice done on paper. It is a bit of a counter-intuitive pattern.
Have fun!
Esther
Love the scrappiness
Thank you!
I had a lot of fun myself looking for animals amongst all the prints! This is a wonderful scrappy quilt, full of brilliant colour and beautifully arranged. The blue border and binding pull it all together perfectly. Bravo!
Thank you very much Kate. I know you are much more experienced with scrappy projects than I am. I should try more!
Hugs
Esther
The trick is to have the widest possible range of colours and patterns; if you try and control things too much it can be a bit… dull. I occasionally buy fat quarters of pretty fabric I know I won’t use for projects, but which I know will enliven scrappy projects.
That is a great quilt! Love the bibs, and no, you can never have too many of those. What a lucky baby!
I love to create for babies! Small pieces of fabric get create beautiful presents.
Hugs,
Esther
The panda fabric is so cute! I made so many bibs for my youngest, your right there’s never enough!
Yay, then I am on the right track! I can always make more of them if she needs them.
Esther
A bit out of your comfort zone but what a lovely, cheerful quilt – perfect for a baby. I love the blue border and the sneak peak of the backing.
Ye sit is really cheerful! Thank you for your lovely comment.
Bye bye
Etsher
Cute, cute, cute, Esther! Love the quilting on the baby quilt. You’ve really tackled and conquered domestic machine quilting. Keep up the beautiful work.
Oh so pretty! I’ve fallen in love with scrappy quilts! This year I’m working on UFO’s, but I’m hoping that 2018 will be my year of the scrappy quilts! Yes, it’s the perfect I Spy quilt! Also baby will learn colors, animals and spend hours gazing at his quilt during tummy time! Thank you so much for sharing!
Hello Patricia,
I hope to create more scrappy quilts too! It was fun working outside of my comfort zone. : -)
Have a lovely day,
Esther