Free-motion Series: Quilt #5

Okay. I don't like to play favorites.

Really, I don't.

But I might, just might have a new favorite.




This baby quilt might be my favorite, and I might have been a leetle bit sad to pack it up and mail it off across the ocean yesterday.

But not really since it is going to my super-awesome brand spankin' new 1-week-old little nephew (nephew #7; I also have 2 nieces). And I think his parents are really going to like it.




Want to see?

I thought so...

(Click on the pictures to see the details!)

Here's the front:




Here's the back:




Here's a teensy part of the hand-embroidered label I made.




I can't show it all to you because I doubt his new proud parents would want all of that info on the world-wide-web for everyone to see, but you can see a part of it. Basically it said:

This "Castle Peeps" quilt
was lovingly made for
_________ _____________ ___________
born
______ ___ 2010
in
______________, _______________
by his aunt, Valerie ___________
in ___________, ___________

It took me several doggone hours to stitch that up by hand. I listened to a Sunday afternoon's worth of NPR and had a towel handy to wipe my super sweaty hands. (That's a story for another day, my sweaty hand issues. I can rust needles with the best of 'em!) But I'm so glad I made the label because it is crazy cute, and that nephew is going to have a reminder of how much he's loved by his crazy auntie.

The free pattern for the quilt, "Villagers Rejoice!", was found here. The fabric line is from the new "Castle Peeps" by Lizzy House. You can find it for sale in lots of different places online, but I got mine for 35% off! Score! I switched it up only a teeny bit and made the outside borders all white (Kona white) because I personally liked the simplified look of it and how it showed off the castle on the front better. I also made sure to try and position one of the flags to look like it was coming straight out of the top of the castle tower peak. It looks that way on the original pattern picture, but there is no reminder to try and do this in the actual pattern instructions.

I had told my sister-in-law and brother-in-law that I wanted to make them a baby quilt and sent them lots of links for several different fabric ideas. They had mentioned liking the "Castle Peeps" fabrics, but I never got a full confirmation. When it went 35% off (a rarity for relatively new fabric) I made the executive decision to order it. They were being surprised by the gender of the baby, so I forged ahead with the yellow and green combo, but I have to admit I was secretly excited when a boy popped out because I think this looks a teeny bit more boyish than girlish, although it would work for either. And the fact that he was born in a land of real-life castles? Too cool. They'll have this baby quilt as a small reminder of that. My brother-in-law is a military man so they may not be there for more than a few years, but what a gorgeous and amazing experience to get to live in such a neat place across the globe.

Once again, I chose stippling for this quilt with white thread, not wanting the quilting to take anything away from the pattern. I had NO puckers on the back (yay!), but I still had a couple of places where the fabric got a little bunched up. Darn it if I can't figure out how to avoid that problem completely! But when I washed it all up and threw it in the dryer to get it all nice and crinkly, the bunching became invisible.

So now I am a happy peeps myself.