Finished baby blanket

This project has been on the go for a little while now, I had to put it away for a few days last month, because it went a touch wrong and I ended up unpicking for about three hours.

But this week I decided enough was enough , popped a film on (Marie Antoinette) and cracked on! Mainly I had to pin baste the entire thing! I was going to get a can of basting spray but I was unsure if the fumes would be suitable for a little one? so I in basted, with actual pins, not safety pins, real pins the kind that like to pop out and surprise you! Yeah I would not recommend this method! and for my next quilt I'll be using safety pins for sure! Then i simply quilted it and added binding (that I made myself! insert smug face here!)

A finished baby blanket! The recipients mummy is a fan of Cath Kidston so I went for a country cottage sort of vibe!. I cut each of the squares to about 4 inches and used the edge of my machine foot as the seam allowance, because I'm a rebel without a cause and stuff! And the finished blanket size is...... oops I forgot to measure! Like a metre? It's baby blanket sized! (Oddly enough babies Daddy is not a fan of Cath Kidston as far as I can tell, so I want it on the record your honor that if baby was a boy, the blanket was going to have a cars and rugby theme)

The fabrics are a mixture from my stash, but include some from hobbycraft, a few squares of vintage Laura Ashley, some 1940s vintage florals and some solids I had lying around!

Not pictured: my neighbours trying to work out why I was outside taking pictures of what they assumed to be my washing! Poor lambs, I think they think I've lost the plot for sure this time!

I quilted it along each of the squares and then on a diagonal, its still got a puffy cosy feel. I quilted it like this after Mr Knitwit commented that his blanket which is quite densly quilted is not as snuggly as it could be! Hence why this one is a little easier on the quilting. (I also think Mr Knitwits might have something to do with the thickness of the fabric that was used!

You can see the quilting more easily for the back, I had to piece the back from some super soft pink flannel and some spare blocks, the blocks in the middle ended up slightly wonky but I only realised after I'd quilted the whole dammed thing! Quilting wise I just did it all by eye and I'm pretty pleased with the results!

There's a few puckers here and there put nothing that was going to convince me to get out my unpicker again! On a side note its super hard to get decent pictures of quilts! It was flapping around on my washing line like mad!

Monogrammed, sewn by hand and ready to whip off in case the babies name does change!

It's a nice mixture of prints (should be anyway I spent three hours sat on my living room carpet choosing them!) I went for blues, pinks, purples and greens to give it a really light summery vibe. (seriously hoping that the mummy hasn't now decided she's into leopard print or monochrome!)

I stitched the back of the binding on by machine and then hand stitched the front! which I never thought I'd do, whenever I read about quilters hand sewing the front of the binding I was like "THAT'S WHAT THE MACHINES FOR YOU FOOLS!" however I found it very therapeutic and it gave a really nice finish!

I know a lot of people prefer to use grow bags at night now for babies, but I thought I'd make a quilt anyway because then it can be used for tummy time! I had a few blankets that I used to spread out under little Knitwit whilst he slept or played. I just found them really useful to have around! especially if there were crumbs on the carpet! No momma wants to wake a sleeping baby to hoover!

Much Love

Frankie

xxx