The Big Reveal

Although it may seem as if I have only been knitting the last few weeks, I have been secret sewing. Sewing for the littlest one in our family. Now I can have the big reveal:

I loved Yvonne's Baby Carter quilt, based on her Lucent quilt. I loved it so much I decided to make one for our new grandchild. I had ordered the fabric and blogged about it here, and then the secret sewing began.

Yvonne's instructions were concise and easy to follow. Her cutting instructions covered various sizing options. This quilt would look great whether big or small. Aside from my camel fabric, I used the other fabrics from stash. I thought I would go spotty. Smarty fabric for the centre, I have had this for years. The yellow and white spot is an apple print the stateside son got me for Christmas one year. The blue and white polka dot is what I generally use for binding, a Rose and Hubble print. The corner smarty fabric was passed to be by a scrapbooking friend Val.

The quilt came together very easily. Even the tricky Y seams weren't tricky. I felt a real sense of achievement when it was finished

 and knew straight away how to quilt it. There were a few lovely days and I was able to baste in the garden.

  Quilting threads can be hard to come by here.  I bought two pale blue Coats cotton thread a couple of shades apart.

 The plan was to first quilt a huge X across the fabric. Each of the four quarters would then be filled in with inverted Vs. The first X and the initial Vs were in the darker pale blue, the Vs spread 2" apart. Then between each V were 3 or 4 Vs in the paler blue.

 

 This all worked very well and the result was really subtle. So subtle in fact, there is no discernable difference in the blues. Great laid plans and all that.
You can see in the back how subtle the difference is.

I had intended to bind it with a navy. A navy spot, surprise surprise. The navy seemed a little too strong. I went shopping to buy a peach spot but the "man" in the shop persuaded me to this baby pink. I wasn't convinced, but they had run out of peach in any case. I do have to admit the pink works well. I am pleased.

A quick wash and line dry with a tumble to finish, and the quilt is beautifully crinkled and squishable. Here's hoping the little one loves it as much as I do, or at least his mum and dad do.

 

Helen x