Several months ago, my daughter requested a gift for a friend who was expecting a baby. Unfortunately life became quite hectic, with ongoing house renovations, hose-sitting, holidays and looking after my grandson, so I've only just had time to make it! I chose a collection of fabrics called Noah's Ark by the designer Stacy Iest Hsu for Moda, and the charm pack and the backing fabric were purchased from Coast and Country Crafts and Quilts in Cornwall. The quilt pattern I used was Charm Squares Baby Quilt by Elizabeth Hartman and is a free PDF download from her website. It's a simple quilt to make, and the rows were pieced together quite quickly...
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...the sashing fabric is also from the Noah's Ark collection, and once the rows were joined together, a final press meant it was ready to be layered for quilting. Using a charm pack gives a lovely scrappy but co-ordinated look to the quilt. This has been machine quilted using a neutral coloured Aurifil 40wt thread, in rows 0.5" apart, using my walking foot as a guide. I've used a bamboo wadding, which launders really well, and is soft and snuggly. I also chose fabrics from the same collection for the sashing and binding, which were both purchased online from The Sewing Studio who are also based in Cornwall...
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...I like wide binding on my quilts, so I cut strips of fabric 3.5" wide, joined them together with a diagonal seam, and used the double fold fold method of binding, stitching the binding in place with a 0.5" seam. The corners were mitred, and the folded edge was turned to the back of the quilt and hand stitched in place using a matching coloured thread and ladder stitch. One of my "Nicola Foreman Quilts labels, purchased from Woven Labels UK a few years ago was machine stitched diagonally across the corner of the quilt on the back...
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...and here's the completed quilt, ready to be wrapped and gifted to the baby. I do hope his mum likes it!
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