Baby Boy Quilt

Hello! I thought it was time to share a quilt I finished recently. This quilt was made for our neighbors who have just had an adorable baby boy. 

For this quilt, I used a pattern called "Batch of Brownies," which comes from the book The Practical Guide to Patchwork by Portlander Elizabeth Hartman.

The idea was to take four colors and match them with coordinating patterns. I wanted to have a general theme, so I picked types of transportation and used primary colors. The fabrics have images of bicycles, cars, dump trucks, and even campers - very boyish!

I found putting the blocks together to be fairly easy, and felt that this was one of Elizabeth's simpler projects. It was when I started adding the blocks to the sashing where I ran into some minor problems and things became a little wonky. I'm pretty sure my cutting was not as precise as it needed to be, so I need to work on that. Every day I learn something new about quilting.

For the back, I did something different than what the pattern suggested. At first I was going to keep it simple and find a great pattern or two and just sew those together to keep a nice clean look (as directed by the pattern). I chose a different route when I found a cool, modern fabric that was two shades of chocolate brown. I had to incorporate it into this quilt, but I didn't want too much of it because it was so dark. So, I thought I would do a little patchwork with it and pair it back to the sky blue. Sky blue and chocolate brown are great complements. Plus, I was able to go through my scraps and as Portlanders like to say, "put a bird on it"!

I gave this quilt to our neighbors this past weekend and they were truly touched that I made this quilt for their new little guy. Their words were so flattering:)

I'm a beginner quilter, so when I complete a quilting project I feel very proud. I just had to share my accomplishment!

Ciao for now,

Figgy