Shylah's Quilt

This is a gift for my husband's coworker's new baby! (That is the story for most of my finishes lately!) The pattern I used has a really great, almost no waste technique for featuring prints. The main fabric featured is Everyday Party, which has many adorable large prints to feature.

Fussy Fairytales Pattern | 38.5"x51.5" | Everyday Party + Various Blenders + Bella Solids Porcelain

This quilt is made with Kate Conklin's Fussy Fairytales pattern.  Since I was making a baby quilt,  I made it 3x4 blocks instead of 4x5 blocks. I got it in my head that it was a 10" layer cake quilt (almost, but not quite), so my blocks are also a bit smaller at 8.5" x 9.5". Despite these sizing changes, the pieced border fit correctly without any adjustments other than the number of pieces.

Some things I learned while making this quilt:

• Read though the instructions first, especially when it comes to the fussy cutting technique. It is almost no waste, if you read the instructions! 
• Think about the sashing color,  Many of the best large prints in Everyday Party were the same color as the sashing and not very dense, so they would have blended too much when they became part of the outer frame of the block. When cutting the white prints, I cut in stacks of three instead of two and placed the white outer frame pieces in the scrap pile. 
• A rotating cutting mat is very useful with this pattern. 
• Instead of marking the fussy cutting window with pins, I used a temporary fabric marker. I didn't have any issues with fabric shifting.
• The border was the most time consuming of this quilt. I learned to glue baste more effectively at QuiltCon and if I were to do a similar border in the future I would use that method. So instead of pinning little by little, I would glue baste each border strip in its entirety.
• I haven't had a lot of trouble with borders in the past, but pieced borders are a little more complicated! Make sure the borders fit exactly. I fudged the slightly too short the top border a little bit and I really regretted it. If I had figured out where the seam allowance problem was and fixed it, I would have saved myself a lot of quilting stress.

I used my typical baby backing "template" as detailed at this link.

I absolutely adore the teal print! I went on a little bit of a journey for the half yard at the bottom. I was looking for:

• Something in a local quilt shop, so I could get started immediately.
• Small print, but not tiny.
• Pink, but not too pink; probably more on the side of salmon in color.
• Sweet print with a vintage charm that fit in with the rest of the fabric.
• Fabric repeat that didn't look too gridded when used in a large piece.

Needless to say, I really didn't find what I was looking for (but I did come back with a few things that I did not need!). In the end, I settled on a heart print I already had in my stash. It is slightly more "princess pink" than I wanted, but the heart print fits in with the sweetness of the main prints.

A simple 6.5" diamond grid, using the main block corners as my guide. I decided to not try this one out on the frame, because I am very picky about the backing alignment on the baby quilts.

I clearly have an addiction to red/white bias stripe! The binding on this quilt is Timeless Treasures Bias Stripe in Red. 

This is the first situation where I actually favor the pillow over the quilt! I think it turned out so adorable! This 16"x16" pillow is based on Jodi Nelson's Pinwheel Baby Quilt pattern from Moda Bake Shop. I reduced the pinwheels down to 4" finished. I added the extra teal border, because it really softens the brightness of the pink and red. I would love to make the entire quilt one day!

Now that this quilt is finished, I will be focusing on my Finish Along List. Better late than never! Today and tomorrow I will be working on the binding for the Jelly Roll Jam, the binding for the Fat Quarter Shop Designer of the Month quilt and the backing for the equilateral triangle quilt. 

I will be linking up with Fabric Frenzy Friday at Fort Worth Fabric Studio, Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday (which is being hosted at Quokka Quilts this week),  Show off Saturday at the Sew Can She blog and Sew Cute Tuesday @ Blossom Heart Quilts!