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Monday, April 30, 2018

Mollie's Baby Quilt

My coworker Mollie recently had a baby boy, Waylon.  When Mollie first told us she was having a boy, I asked if she had a theme planned for the nursery.  She told me that she planned on no theme, but if she had decided to do a theme, it would have been forest animals.


Well, I have a HUGE collection of 5" I Spy squares.  So I went through them and picked out anything that I thought might live in a forest.  Then I selected 40 based on biggest variety of animals and a somewhat limited list of colors to give it coherence.  I chose Kona Leprechaun as the background fabric because I thought the green was nice and bright and appropriately forest-y. 

Upper Left
The pattern is Galaxy by Villa Rosa Designs. I really like how quickly it comes together.

Upper Right
I used my best judgement on what qualified as a forest animal.  I didn't ask Mollie for any elaboration when she told me "forest animals" and I didn't tell her I was asking so I could make a quilt, though it's possible that she guessed. I did end up with a lot of repeated animals.  I had quilt a few owl and racoon fabrics.

Lower Left
I did straight line quilting on either side of the vertical seams.  I really like the grid it created.  I've only recently started trying Aurifil thread and my husband gave me a gift set for my birthday. One of the colors in that set matched the Leprechaun perfectly.  Except the thread broke constantly.  Now, I said I'm fairly new to using Aurifil but this wasn't my first time.  On my previous uses, the thread sewed like a dream.  I tried everything I could think of and the thread still broke.  I posted in a quilting forum on facebook asking for help--all the suggestions were things I'd already tried multiple times with no luck.  Someone tagged an Aurifil rep in the US and I had an email from her within half an hour.  She said I had tried everything she would have suggested, it must be a bad spool, and send her a photo of the top of the spool and she would send me a replacement. And within a week, I had a new spool (bigger than my original spool, mind you) plus two bonus spools and a product booklet that outlines all the different weights of Aurifil thread and their best uses.  New spool quilted like a dream and I was able to finish the quilting with far less frustration.  Now THAT is customer service!  I am so impressed!  Thank you, Aurifil!

Lower Right
Mollie and her husband referred to the baby as "Slug" during her pregnancy.  I have hundreds of 5" squares of I Spy fabrics but I was only able to find one slug.  At least, I hope it's a slug! 


I used a great print called Mama & Me for the back. I really love these bears!


I took the quilt to Mollie and Waylon a little over a week ago.  Both seem to like it, and I hope it gets lots of use and love over the years.

This was #4 on my list of Q2 goals for the Finish Along.  This is also my list of UFOs to complete for my PhD (Projects Half Done) with Gail of Quilting Gail.



 

9 comments:

  1. Yet another quilt, wow, you have a great selection of I Spy fabrics Emily, it looks great. Congrats on another wonderful finish. Such good service from Aurifil, I have had it where a thread keeps breaking too, I find if I go up a size in needle that helps.

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  2. Very fun baby quilt! Congrats on getting another one off the PhD list.

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  3. That is a sweet baby quilt - I'm sure it will give years of service. So sorry about the frustrations in making it, and am glad that you were able to get such great customer service.

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  4. You have the best collection of fabrics. This little quilt is adorable and the green shows off all those fun animal prints perfectly. I'm sure it will be well loved.

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  5. Such a fun baby quilt, that green as the background is perfect for a baby boy.

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  6. I love this quilt! I've lately been drawn to green fabrics and that bright color you've used as the background is awesome. The pattern is cool, too.

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  7. Very cute baby quilt. I am sure your friend will love it. I love the color green.

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  8. So much love and thought went into that baby quilt! On behalf of the FAL crew, congrats on your finish and thanks for participating!

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