Summer Sunrise Baby Quilt, Part 1

Last week I started a new project, which I am going to call the Summer Sunrise Baby Quilt. My cousin Brian, and his Wife Lai are expecting their second child. They have a son about the same age as my Daughter Gwenyth and are going to be having a precious little girl! So for her gift I of course decided to make a quilt.

Just like my last project I had only one week to work on it and the baby shower was today. I decided not to use a pattern for this quilt, but to just go with it! I went ahead and picked out some of my favorite girly fabrics from my Pile.

I had no specific size planned, I just started cutting strips ranging from 2" - 5" in the different patterns. I moved them around on my design wall till I had the desired size and look.

Since the quilt was pretty simple I decided to jazz it up a little with an Elephant Appliqué. This was my first time doing an appliqué, and it was super fun! I went ahead and tried the Freezer Paper Technique. Turns out im not a huge fan of that method, I find ironing all the seam allowances over, is really time consuming. I think next time I will try a fusible interfacing, like Heat Bond. Going for the ragged edge instead.

I also tried out the satin stitch which turned out alright. I found that it was difficult to follow the tight curves of the appliqué, which took a tole on the quality of my satin stitch.

Once Mr. Elephant was done, I went ahead and wall basted the quilt. I wanted something really organic for the quiliting. So I went with horizontal wavy line quilting, really close together. This quilting is so relaxing to do! It is probably my favorite thus far. You can just sit back and relax, you dont have to worry about things being straight, its fantastic! 

I went with a nice bright yellow for the binding. I am starting to become a huge fan of machine stitching the binding. It goes on so fast and holds up really well! As usual I made one of my special tags, this verse is one of my favorites! Children truly are a reward and gift from God! 

Finally I popped it in the wash, so it would be nice and clean for their precious little girl! I'd say the overall theme for this quilt project would be relaxation. It was really great to just plan as I go and not worry about measurements, sizes, points and squares. I had a blast. Check back tomorrow for the final photos and reveal!

Alyssa