Q3 Finish-a-Long post #2 - baby quilt

Back in July, I wrote up my list of Q3 Finish-a-Long goals, with high hopes that I would complete all three of my works in progress by the end of September deadline. Here's finish two out of three. I have to give a huge thanks to Leanne for hosting the motivational FAL, without her inspiration (and deadlines!), I doubt I'd have a finished quilt right now!

This simple little patchwork baby quilt was made with love for my cousin's new baby boy. I used the same Kate Spain zoo fabric that I'd used for Ellie's quilt back in 2011. I added a mix of coordinating tone on tone prints and Kona solids. I kept it simple, cutting five inch squares of each fabric, and adding a few pieced blocks here and there. I made my first ever hour glass blocks (yay!) using Rita of Red Pepper Quilts' tutorial. I also pieced a few half-square triangles and striped blocks to add interest. When planning the layout, I arranged the blocks randomly and tried to balance out the colours in a way that was pleasing to the eye.

I quilted in an organic crosshatch pattern, meaning that I didn't mark a single line on this quilt! It was so much fun watching the pattern emerge! I used a taupe Aurifil thread (2314) from a new box of 28wt threads I got over the summer. 

For the backing, I used exactly one yard of Amy Butler's full moon dot that I had in my stash. Actually, this entire project used fabric from my stash, the Kona charcoal binding was leftover from my first set of potholders for the VMQG-FVMQG swap, and even the batting was scraps from another project.

I thought Baby E deserved a personalized quilt, so I fused this six inch tall letter E to the backing and blanket stitched around the edges before basting the quilt. 

This was a fun project and I'm looking forward to giving it to our little cousin sometime before he turns six months old. It finished at 35"x42", so even though he's not a newborn anymore, it's plenty big for him to use it for years to come.