Free-motion Series: Quilt #3

Isn't it darling?!






(You might have to click on the photos to see the fabric better. I should've taken a close-up shot. Just so you know, it's a square quilt, even if it looks rectangular in the photos. It's because my unwilling models weren't available to hold it up for shots, so I just laid it on the bench under the magnolia tree. Oh, and it's in the shade, so the colors in the photos are a bit off. Oops.)

This baby quilt is for the soon-to-be-born third daughter of my good friend Sacha, making her big debut sometime between now and Monday. Let me just tell you, I nearly squealed with delight when I found this fabric a couple of months ago. Sacha raises chickens in her backyard, and I knew she would love the quirky French chicken fabric as much as I did. And the best part was that I got it on super sale -- gotta love it when that happens!

I knew I wanted to fussy-cut the little chicks out and make some wonky log cabins, so this is what I came up with. I love the color combination (of course I do, they are some of the colors found in my own house), but I didn't realize that it would blend in her new nursery as well. Hurray for that! The quilt is about 35.5" square, somewhat smaller than other baby quilts I've made, but honestly, it's a great size for different stages -- it could be a wall-hanging, it'd be great for tummy-time on the floor, and it could be carried around easily by a toddler. I didn't wash and dry it yet to make it all nice and crinkly, so hopefully it will only get softer with time.

I also tried out a style on this quilt -- pebble quilting -- instead of the stippling I'd done on my first two efforts. Dang, pebble quilting goes through thread like no one's business, and I seriously thought my arms were going to fall off from all the circular motion, but I LOVE how it looks. I love the contrast of the straight lines in the log cabins with the circular quilting. I also like that it makes me think of eggs on that chicken fabric. And I especially love the fact that there were less puckers on the back with this quilting. I will definitely be doing more pebble quilting in the future.

And in true Sacha fashion, since she is one of the coolest cats I know, she sent me home with a sack of fresh eggs, collected straight from her backyard while I was there dropping off the gift. First fresh eggs (as in, laid that morning) I've eaten that I know of, and now I am hooked. Dee-lish!