Baby Blue is my very last finish of 2015. It was down to the wire, too. I made Baby Blue on commission and had to wait to post about it until I had delivered it.
This quilt is different than many quilts I've made in several respects. Firstly, I really tried to make this quilt modern and simple. I made this quilt for a coworker's baby, and I know that the mom is interested in modern quilting. I think you could call all my quilts modern, in that they use some modern fabrics, some modern blocks, are made in the modern age, etc... But I specifically try to use non modern techniques, age old quilt blocks, vintage fabrics. My quilts don't look "modern" to me. But for this commission, I tried really hard to get a modern look, while still retaining the feeling of my quilts.
I made this quilt what I would call more "gender specific" than my other quilts. I knew this quilt was going to a little boy and thought the dark blues would give this a more modern feel. Of course, this quilt could be for a baby girl, or anyone else! For other baby quilts I've made I consciously tried not to use traditional gender binary representing colors. This was the opposite.
The last major difference in this quilt from my other work is the fabric I chose to use. I used all new modern fabric for this quilt. I also used flannel for the first time in this quilt. I'm glad I did this for this particular quilt, but over all it's not how I get my favorite results.
Baby Blue uses a variety of new fabric in a simple large square pattern on the quilt front. I chose dark but bright colors, hoping this would give the quilt the modern feel I was after.
The back of the quilt uses some of the same blue and grey fabrics from the front as well as a blue and white striped flannel. Baby Blue uses a new cotton batting. I quilted Baby Blue with straight lines using bright blue cotton thread. The simple grid pattern quilted was also chosen to evoke a modern feel.
For the binding, I used the fold over method that I prefer. This shows the soft flannel on the quilt front. I sewed two lines on the binding, but used an new (to me) applique method for the one closer to the interior of the quilt. I feel that this makes the binding a little softer and pliable.
I made a simple label for the quilt. I didn't know the baby's name at the time of attaching the label, but I wanted to include a special message for mother and child.
This quilt was my last finish for 2015, and the only finish on my 2015 FAL Q4 list.
Bippi is always a very helpful quilting assistant, but Flounder also took an interest in helping with this one.
I'm linking up with Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching today! Can't wait to get slow stitching!