Emma's Quilt

I'm really excited to show you my finished Windsor Lane baby quilt today (I'm jumping the gun a bit - it still hasn't been given so if you're looking at this Libby, LOOK AWAY NOW). I'm so bad at naming quilts, this one is simply 'Emma's Quilt'. 

There were a few dramas with the quilting on this one. I got really stuck with how to quilt the outer background fabric, and deliberated for nearly a week about how to do it. Baby Emma was born on Sunday - so Monday I decided to just go for it and get it finished. I got this far:

And then realised it was just completely wrong. I hated it. So I unpicked it. If you've ever unquilted anything you will understand how much I hated it to go through the pain of picking out quilting. Those echo shells only took about half an hour to do. Unpicking? Four hours. Ugh.

I need to trust my instincts more - my initial thought was to do straight lines radiating out in the background areas. So that's what I did second time around - and although I'm not 100% convinced it's right it looks a thousand times better than the shells. It was so much fun to FMQ straight(ish) lines (let's call them organic ;o) ) I'm not sure why, but the texture seems quite different from doing it with my walking foot and it was so nice not to have to stop and turn the quilt! I'll definitely be trying it again.

So, a few obligatory quilty close ups :o) The centre pink star is quilted using light pink Aurifil 50wt, and the remainder is quilted using soft white Aurifil 50wt (as opposed to bright white). The background fabric is Kona PFD (which is somewhere between Kona snow and Kona white) - and the quilting blends flawlessly.

All the quilting is free hand FMQ - apart from the circles which I drew freehand with dissolvable marker first. If I do something like this again I'm going to invest in some circle templates ;o)

The prints I used in the top are all from the gorgeous Windsor Lane line by Bunny Hill Designs for Moda - not at all my usual taste, but perfect for the new mum. The back is from another Bunny Hill range - it's a script print from their Ooh La La line (this photo is sideways - the script actually does run in the right direction ;o) ). I really love how the quilting looks on the back.

Especially that centre flower. It makes me happy :oD

For the binding, I went to one of our local quilt shops (one I'd never been to). I was pleasantly surprised how many modern designers they stock (Lotta and Denyse!!) - and they women who own it are just lovely. I took the quilt with me and the ladies in the shop helped me choose the binding. It wasn't until I got home and looked at the selvedge that I realised it's another Bunny Hill fabric - this time from their Lily and Will collection. So by accident it's a completely Bunny Hill quilt :o) Just as an aside, I'm also quite thrilled - they've invited me to hang some of my quilts in the shop! The quilt shop ladies encouraged me to go for bias binding, and I'm glad I took their advice - I really love the way it turned out. This was my first time cutting my binding on the bias and it worked pretty well (I used this tutorial).

All the photos above were taken before I'd washed it - it's now washed and I plan to take some post-wash photos tomorrow (it is soooo soft and crinkly and I think I love it even more now it's washed!). I've also made a pillow/cushion to go with the quilt (again, photos tomorrow!)

Quilt Stats:

Quilt Design: by me (based on the traditional  Dutch Rose block, with a variation on the centre star)
Size: 40" x 40"
Fabric: Windsor Lane by Bunny Hill Designs for Moda, Kona PFD
Thread: Auriful 50wt in soft white and light pink (for piecing and quilting)
Quilted: by myself on my Bernina.

Phew! If you're still reading, thank you for making through all my waffling! Just as an aside, I'm going to be doing a couple of giveaways in the next few weeks (Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day and the Quilting Gallery blog hop) so make sure you check back - they're going to be pretty awesome!

xx Jess