Another Baby Boy Quilt

How is it that a 50+ year old woman with no children of her own is constantly making things for babies? Just lucky I guess. 

Here is the baby quilt I designed for a mom who is due in August. It’s probably one of the most ambitious projects I’ve taken on because of all the hand work. The images in the light blocks are all hand appliquéd and embellished with hand embroidery. Also the quilt is completely hand quilted. It’s not that any of those techniques are particularly difficult, but all that close quilting is time consuming. I've been anxious to give it to her, so that I could then share it with all of you, and that finally happened Saturday evening. 

The colors are quite unique. Mom and I went shopping for fabric not long after she found out she was pregnant, and she told me she was thinking about gray and cream with just a little bit of yellow. Then she sent me this e-board. Isn't this a clever idea? She has a friend, Christie Chase, who is an talented artist and designer. Christie put this together to provide inspiration for the nursery. The link is to a post on Christie's blog that shows the finished nursery.
It just happened that I stumbled upon another post that day with a couple of these fabrics identified, so I looked them up and ordered a half yard of each pattern in the grey/cream/yellow colorway that Mom favored. You can find the whole line at this link: Aviary 2 by Joel Dewberry for Free Spirit (Westminster Fibers).

As I usually do, I sat around and looked at the fabric for a long time. I had been thinking I would make a quilt of big blocks and embroider cute boy vignettes in several of them. Once I saw the fabric though – especially this wood grained yellow – all I could think about were wooden toys.

I bought cream fabric and dug through the stash to find an assortment of solid grays then set to work on the design.

Those of you that know my work also know I’m not a huge fan of symmetry. So it should come as no surprise that the soldierly rows of blocks are broken up into uneven clumps with shashing. But the real fun came with the images. I pulled many from clip art images on the internet and narrowed it down to these:

A rocking horse          

A ball and bat                        

A wagon                    

A teddy Bear                         

A blue tick hound (because these parents have one)

And a pile of blocks that spell out a name.

I loved that I could make some of those traditionally wooden toys out of wood grained fabric.

If nothing else, this quilt is a reminder that whatever you are making, you should be having fun, and that gifts should always reflect the recipient’s interests.

If you would like to make this quilt, or need a guide to make something similar but tailored to the interest of someone you know, find the pattern here.