WIP: Quilt For Baby

When I found out that I was expecting, I decided I wanted to make something special for the baby. To me, a quilt says 'I Love You' better than almost anything else. It's warm, cuddly, and a butt-load of work. I went to the fabric store and picked out a bunch of fabrics that I thought would go well together - batiks, all. I love batiks, and I've wanted to make an all-batik quilt ever since I finished my mostly-batik quilt. Here are all of the fabrics:

I was chatting with the lady cutting my fabrics about my intended project, and I mentioned that I'd probably just be doing a simple layout as I'd never before done anything intricate for a quilt top. She said that she thought I'd manage just fine if I decided to do something elaborate. I thought to myself, 'maybe I could use a good challenge.' I went to the library and checked out a few books with quilting patterns. I decided to go with a less-than-traditional pattern by Karla Alexander (from this book: http://www.amazon.com/New-Cuts-Quilts-More-Stack/dp/1564776778). I fell in love with the quilt on the cover, and, luckily, Ms. Alexander shares my love of batiks. The pattern was a near-perfect fit for the fabrics that I had already purchased.

I learned a lot about cutting and piecing through making this pattern (mostly that I'm rubbish at cutting). I also found out how expensive acrylic rulers are...wow! But, they are almost indispensable.

After many, many hours of cutting, shuffling, cutting, sewing, did I mention cutting, and more sewing, I have the quilt top mostly finished. All it's missing is a border to make it a bit wider. I wanted a twin-size quilt...babies outgrow baby-size quilts so quickly, and I had a ton of fabric. Our nursery is blue, and I was going for a water theme for the quilt.

Bonus: I went to another fabric store to get batting and a backing fabric... Well, the store is moving, and while they didn't have any batting left on the shelves, they did have their (limited selection) batiks on sale for half-off! I scored a beautiful print for the back of the quilt at the price of a solid cotton! It's not the same color-way as the front, it's blue and brown and green...more 'river and lakes' than 'tropical beaches.' But, I think that's awesome as it'll be unique from each side. I'll be quilting in royal blue thread with a bubble motif...appropriate for both sides!