Cheerio!

June is always such a busy month. A majority of my family was born in June, so there was a birthday party every weekend. I ate so much cake and ice cream! I also had to finish two baby quilts. This quilt is for a baby boy who was just born on my mother-in-law's side of the family.

Cheerio Pattern | The Boat House and Bella Solids Off White | 45"x 56.25"

The pattern is Cheerio by Camille Roskelley. I found the pattern in issue 8 of Love Patchwork and Quilting magazine, but it is also sold on the Thimble Blossoms website. I paired a fat eighth bundle of Sweetwater's The Boat House with Bella Solids Off White. I really love these nautical prints with this quilt pattern, because the blocks remind me of life savers! The fat eighth bundle I used had less fabric than the pattern called for, but that was okay since I was reducing the size anyway. Each fat eighth equals a block, so it is easy to scale the pattern up and down. I made it really easy on myself and just halved the pattern. I ended up with four extra blocks, plus the six extra fat eighths I didn't cut.

To make flippy corners, I adhere painter's tape to my machine and draw a straight line from the needle to the edge of the machine. Then all I have to do is keep the appropriate corners aligned and done! It really speeds up the process.

It really did seem like a lot of pieces and steps for a baby quilt, but each step was so easy that the process was really enjoyable. By keeping my fabric organized, I was able to cut down the back-and-forth to the sewing machine and really streamline my chain piecing. I have been listening to audiobooks while working on quilt tops and it really makes time fly, even during the more tedious parts of quilting. While making this quilt, I listened to The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty through my library's subscription to Hoopla.

I used my standard baby quilt backing template, plus my blank pages... My First Alphabet pattern. The Boat House prints are so dense and I wanted something a little more airy for the top section of the back. I chose More Hearty Good Wishes Ships Dark Blue by Janet Clare for Moda. It felt extra soft and drapey! I am really proud of the matched seam on the back! Na Na's Place on the Web has a great tutorial for getting a perfect invisible seam.

After I had already purchased the More Hearty Good Wishes fabric, I discovered a great ship blueprint fabric. I think it would have worked well too. 3 Sisters always has great blueprint and text prints!

The quilting is a stipple with Aurifil 40wt in Dove. This was my first time working with 40wt and it really is much more noticeable than 50wt! The stitches are very defined.

I had been worried about frame quilting when the backing alignment is crucial, because a quilt I sent out to be quilted came back noticeably off-center. It turns out I had nothing to worry about. I think it helps that the name is left aligned, so you can't tell if it is offset by an inch or two. I did add an extra inch to the left of the name just to be extra safe. Can you imagine all the tears that would occur if I took it off the frame and the name was cut off? :D

Since the top and backing are pinned to the leader cloths by their centers, it is easy to center the width. Centering the height is a little more finicky. I have been drawing a line at the ideal part of the backing and making sure that I float the top of the quilt to the line. Technically it still ends up being an inch or two too low or high, but I usually have a lot of room to work with.

Bias binding, The Boat House Vanilla on Navy True North by Sweetwater for Moda. Stripes are the best!

Next week I will be showing off the other baby quilt (pictured above)! I am still trying to work up the energy to make backing for the the very first quilt I ever started!

I will be linking up with Finish it Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts, Fabric Frenzy Friday at Fort Worth Fabric Studio, Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday (which is being hosted at Quokka Quilts this week) and  Show off Saturday at the Sew Can She blog.