A few weeks ago I had coffee with Pippa Armbrester, a modern quilter who lives in my town. We’d never met, although we’d heard about each other. I love Pippa’s quilts (check out her book – affiliate link). She has a wonderfully simple understated style and after our meeting I was inspired to try something similar.
Charlie’s colleague, Ethan, and his husband are expecting a baby this winter. They’ve been dreaming of becoming parents for a very long time and have been through a lot to make that dream come true. I wanted to make something special for this baby, but I knew that December is a very busy time for me so I decided to work on it now, in the summer, when I have more free time.
This quilt has a square or two of every solid fabric in my stash. It’s bound in white and backed with a purple floral ditzy print. The quilting is straight lines to the left and right of each vertical seam. I wanted to wash the quilt before gifting it and threw a few color catchers (affiliate link) in the machine along with some mild detergent just to be sure the colors didn’t run and that worked well.
I just saw this beautiful baby quilt made from solids and I’d like to make one like that sometime soon.
so cute 🙂
sometimes a simple pattern makes a more powerful statement! I think it’s awesome you are stepping outside your comfort zone and doing a different type of project. I made one over the top quilt and I much prefer my random stuffed animal projects – less precision and matching 🙂
Did you just put the squares together in a row, then put the rows together? and
quilt afterwards?
Judi M
Knox, IN
Yep!
Simply understated beauty. The quilting also hits the mark in addition to the arrangement and color composition.
It looks like you stitched 1/4 inch on either side of the ditch. Is that right? It’s a lovely finish I’d like to do.
Yes, that’s right.
Love that quilt. I made something similar, just using 4 inch squares of hand dyed fabric. I made it quite large and hand sewed and hand quilted it…so it took quite a while to get finished! But i love it and so does my son 🙂
Sometimes a simple design is so satisfying.
I find sometimes as a quilter I feel like I have to make a quilt with a certain amount of complexity because of the amount of years I have been quilting. Then I realized that over complicated seams and angles are not why I love quilting. I love the simple and repetitive sewing while I wind down that eventually makes something beautiful and functional. I love to think about the recipient of the quilt while I make it. I do love to challenge myself every so often but simple quilts steal my heart every time. I also feel as gifts that they tend to get used as I intended them to be, especially by a special baby. Great post as always!
I do hope this quilt will be used. It’s definitely not precious – just pretty and functional..