Baby R's Quilt

Last April when I found out my sister was expecting, I was overjoyed! So excited for her and the new adventure she was entering with #2. My mind started racing...what type of quilt should I make? My sister is really into batiks, which is what I did for her first, but this one felt different.  Pattern, or no pattern? Scrappy or coordinated fabrics?
Fortunately, my sister started building a registry and picking paints and I got some wonderful clues and ideas. I was browsing Green Fairy Quilts and saw a fat quarter pack called Bartholomeow's Reef and knew it was the one. It called to me and I had to do it.

I wanted to do something with sailboats to stick with the theme of ocean and came up with a sailboat pattern of my own. I accidentally completed a whole baby quilt, my Sailboat Quilt, while practicing this block, which I also love, love!

Once I had my blocks put together, I felt like they needed to be wonky, so I twisted them with scraps from the collection. The last thing to complete was the sashing and border.  The blocks had made the quilt a nice baby size already, and the blocks were so busy that I decided to do something simply. I found this wonderful solid at the LQS Cactus Quilt Shop and was so happy with how well it pulled it all together and completed the quilt.

For the quilting, I struggled with stitching over the sailboats (I usually do for some reason) so I opted to stitch waves and swirls around the blocks allowing the boats to pop a little. I even went in and stitched a quarter inch in around the boats and didn't like it so I picked it out and declared it done.

I ordered the backing to match rather than piecing something together. Now I have enough leftovers I could make a whole new quilt. Yay!  I loved this one so much it was hard to let it go. I hope my sisters little boy feels the same way.

Finally, I finished the quilt with the solid to match the sashing and borders, which has a great contrast on the back. I hand-stitched the binding, and added a personalized label to this one for them.

This was an original from start to finish, and I love how it all came together.  It was like it was on purpose by accident.  I kind of went scrappy, but with coordinated fabrics. It was a pattern, just my own. Works for me. I hope they love it as much as I do.