Thursday, January 3, 2019

Counting Sheep

Crafting has (once again) fallen by the wayside over the last few months (years). But I have been trying to make time to do more. Because when I do, I feel happy. Yay, happiness!

My PTA work finally quieted down enough for my creative juices to flow a bit right at Thanksgiving. My husband's cousin had a baby in June 2018 and I got a wild bee in my bonnet to make the little dude a quilt. Because every baby needs a quilt! But it had to be simple and something I could finish quickly as we were going to meet baby in person for the first time at the family Christmas party on December 8th. My other goal was to try and use my stash and avoid purchasing any additional fabric.


Success!!! I even finished with a whole day to spare. ;)


The design is "Hyde Park" from the book Super Simple Fat Quarter Quilts by Lynda Milligan and Nancy Smith (see amazon.com listing). The instructions were straightforward and clear and the top came together very quickly. I didn't have enough full fat quarters, so I went a bit scrappier. I purchased this cute sheep fabric in 2013 (a Hamil Textiles fabric, designed by World of Susybee). It was great to finally be able to put it to good use!


I quilted it with swirls through the center and then did a fancier border treatment-- I try to embrace opportunities like this practice and build my quilting skills. Babies don't judge. ;)


Here I've added in some lines to show the design a bit more clearly. I love how it turned out! My one regret though is that, because of the scrappy nature of the fabrics, the quilting doesn't show up very strongly. However, had the design turned out not-so-great, this would have worked to my advantage. So, not a huge regret.


The back isn't ideal-- but it was available in my stash and I had enough of it that it only took one seam (important as time was of the essence!). The binding was finished by machine (I used Red Pepper Quilt's binding tutorial).


Little sheep on the label! Yay!


The 56x67" size is perfect for playing on and as he gets older, it will be excellent for snuggling.

It was a joy to meet our new baby cousin and to be able to give him this quilt.

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