Quilt for Baby Girl

When one of my best friends told me she was expecting, I knew I wanted to make her a quilt. Normally, quilts are taken care of my my mom or my aunt, so I just avoid that all together. This time, I got to step up to make the baby blanket! 

She and her husband had a gender reveal party, and when we found out they were going to have a precious baby girl, I told her that I planned to make a quilt. She told me that she planned to make the nursery pink, white, and gray but she was excited to have something hand made. I brainstormed on pinterest for a week and spent probably a good hour in the fabric store picking out the color combo I would be happy with, since she gave me free reigns as long as it was gray/pink/white. I came up with a pink/gray combo that was a little more modern and not necessarily "baby." Some of the fabrics were from that section of the store, but I think quilts should be used and baby fabrics are outgrown after a while, which means less usage in the long run. The colors below look slightly less pink because of the lighting, but they definitely have a coral tint to them.

Here is what I came up with!

The back I chose is a more "baby" print--flannel butterflies. I love flannel or other soft materials for the back of a quilt because they tend to be more comforting.

Next came the pattern. Once I figured out the size I wanted to make: 52 x 42 (a toddler sized blanket), I set out to figure out the block size...

52” long ÷ 6.5” blocks = 8 blocks long      
       6.5” + .25” + .25” = 7” blocks with seam allowance
42” wide ÷ 6” blocks = 7 blocks long
       6” + .25” + .25” = 6.5” blocks with seam allowance

I decided to go with this because it was completely even. I don't mean that the blocks are even as far as the shape is concerned, but 7 x 6.5 inch blocks are something that I can cut out really easily. I know exactly where the half inch mark on my rotary cutter is and I am confident in my abilities to cut that dimension out. Once I figured out the size, I thought about the appearance of the pattern.

Bright pink-9
gray-10
blocked pink-10
light pink-9
white w/arrows-9
light gray-9

Bright pink-9
gray-9
blocked pink-9
light pink-9
white w/arrows-11
light gray-9

I came up with two patterns relatively easily, the top pattern appeals so much more to my OCD, but the bottom pattern looks more fun and significantly cuter. Thank goodness for my loved ones, as I sent out a text saying "okay which one" as I often do. 2-1, the bottom pattern won (thank goodness I didn't ask another person because I would've been forced to actually make a decision... haha). 

the beginnings of my piles of fabric squares!

I ended up taking my cut squares home to have my mom and sister help me lay it out and they said well shoot we may as well start sewing now! So between the three of us, this quilt was laid out, pinned together and sewn up in about an hour and a half.

Once the top was finished, I set out to pin the back, batting and top together and get working on my machine quilting!

In the process of pinning... this is about the size of quilt
I'd be able to do without a bigger space to tape/pin!

Finished pinning and the excess is mostly trimmed

working hard on my machine quilting

Finished machine quilting!

Photo shoot time since I finished quilting <3

Once I finished quilting it was really obvious that I would need to add a separate boarder since I didn't leave myself enough room to wrap the backing around. I deliberated in the fabric store for a long time, but ended up with a darker gray (just slightly darker than my darkest gray in the quilt).

Look at the boarder I added and you can see the pretty backing!

Photo-shoot part 2

Totally in love with this quilt!!!!!!

Everything came out better than I could've imagined!

Shot of the back side, since I haven't shown but a glimpse or two.
I made sure to get nice soft flannel for baby.

I cannot wait to go to baby's shower here in the next couple of weeks! I am traveling a lot the next two weeks so I had to get it done early. But it's all I can do not to text momma pictures in the meantime. I hope she loves it as much as I do :)