Blogger's Quilt Festival

My entry for the Blogger's Quilt Festival Fall 2010 is actually the first quilt I ever finished. Not the first one I started, not the first one I cut and pieced, not the first one I started quilting. But the first one I actually finished. (OK—I had made a quilted pillow before. Does that count? It was about a 12" block, with no binding. So I say no, it doesn't count.)

Finished in August 2006, this is Zachary's quilt.

 

Yes, I look at it now and cringe. There are so many things I would do differently. But Zachary loved it, as did his mom, who has a tendency to buy pieced blocks at thrift stores and frame them.

So, the story behind this. I wanted to make a quilt for the baby because his mom loves quilts. Choosing the fabric was another story. It had to be OK for a boy or girl. And I really wanted to find some animal prints. Zachary has an older brother and sister. His brother is autistic—but quite high-functioning. But there was a lot of stress about how big brother (who was about 7 at the time) would accept the new baby, as change is very hard for him.

Big brother loves animals. Loves them. And can tell you all about them. Everything I know about bullfrogs I learned from this boy. So I thought maybe an animal quilt would give the new baby something that big brother could discuss. But a babyish print would be good, so that it clearly belonged to the baby.

Like a true beginner, I chose my pattern before I chose the fabric. Which was not a great idea. But it had lots of squares. Big squares! I did a simple diagonal quilting pattern, as well as some square outlines and straight lines.

All in all it worked well. I finished it, after all. In a timely fashion! The whole family loved it. And I realized that making a baby quilt is much much faster than crocheting a baby afghan.