making :: sugar pop {baby quilt}

Sugar Pop Baby Quilt

I just might be queen of the last minute projects. Even when I think I'm giving myself plenty of time and starting early I can't seem to keep up the pace and actually finish early.  This quilt was much the same...

It started with a mini roll of 2.5" polka dotted strips that I got from my partner in the Lined Drawstring Bag swap.  I knew I wanted to use that mini roll-up and went looking for roll-up friendly patterns.  When I found this free pattern on Craftsy, I knew I had a winner.  Then I started in with the fun part... playing with fabric.

Very quickly I realized that I'd need to add fabrics to the mini roll-up to get up to the required number of strips for the project.  What I didn't realize until till I had all the blocks made though, was just how big this quilt was going to be.  So, back to adding fabrics to the polka dots that I started with.  I remembered that I had a cute stack of fabrics I'd gotten from Pink Castle Fabrics - the Dear Stella Stash Box.  It was full of a muted rainbow of hearts and bunnies and blenders.  It would be perfect for this project, especially for helping create the high/low volume feel of the blocks.  Yet, that still wasn't quite enough to fill out all the strips.

I added in a few of my favorite Heather Ross prints... perfectly low volume and I just knew the mom and dad-to-be would love the pink bikes print.  With everything else reading as a solid color, these prints really stood out on their mainly white backgrounds.

Last, but certainly not least, I added in the solids.  These were from an awesome bundle I won from Dana at Old Red Barn Company!  The bundle itself was beautiful together and full of depth.  I loved the way it seemed to have the perfect solids to add to this quilt.  And I thought adding them, with their rich tones, gave this colorful quilt a touch of sophistication.  The winning bundle came at just the right time and it filled out the quilt perfectly.

Then it was on to cutting and sewing and sewing and sewing.  A million long strips together and then together again.  Then more cutting... with only one little mistake made (can you spot it?).  But I just went with it, because sometimes it's ok to have a little bit that isn't perfect.  I feel like there's some little hidden message in that.

I got everything done, just enough, so that the day before the shower I could finish the hand work as we traveled south.  On BART and on Caltrain I stitched and stitched on the binding.  It was finished up and the quilting threads tied off and trimmed just a couple hours into the car ride down to Pasadena.  Excitedly I shouted to my friends in the car, "It's done!"

And it was.  I was so happy with how it turned out and the parents-to-be really seemed to like it.  I forgot to get a good picture of the backside (guess that just means I'll need to visit when little Sophia arrives), but it was pieced together of mainly a grey polka dotted flannel with some extra soft puffy clouds in flannel at the top.  I even worked in a little more Heather Ross on the backside and for the butterflies on the binding.  

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Pattern :: Sorbet Quilt - by Afton Warrick @ Quilting Mod

Fabrics 

:: Riley Blake - Polka Dot Rolly Polly
:: Dear Stella
:: Heather Ross - Lightning Bugs & Tiger Lilly
:: Art Gallery Pure Elements Solids - Tokyo Solid Fat Quarter Bundle

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Sugar Pop Baby Quilt

The Process

all in the details :: a little label

Matching all the points makes me happy