A Finished Baby Quilt

There is great excitement in my family at the moment as my sister, Sally, is pregnant. When she announced it, my other sister, Vicky and I knew straight away that we wanted to make a baby quilt for the little one. We had both been trying our hand at english paper piecing and I had seen a beautiful star pattern that I thought would be perfect. We didn't (and still don't) know if it is going to be a girl or a boy so we thought a rainbow of colours would be ideal. 

We bought all of these fabrics from A Patchwork Garden in Sheffield. Once we started piecing, we thought a few more patterns were needed, so we also used scraps from previous projects.

Now, I have to be honest, making the diamonds wasn't so bad, but I wasn't very good at sewing the stars together. I couldn't get the points to join perfectly and there wasn't much room for error. That is where Vicky stepped in and saved the day, she has the patience of a saint!  

Quilting and binding, however,  I can do. We decided to quilt in a semi-circular pattern, to match our rainbow theme. We started by drawing round a small bowl and then machine sewed the width of the foot outwards. I really love the effect and it's surprisingly simple to do. The photo above was taken quite late on one evening and I have that crazy 'we're close to the end' look on my face. 

For the binding we chose a bright turquoise polka dot. I think one of my favourite parts of this quilt has to be the backing fabric. 

It's called 'Raindrops' by Timeless Treasures and I think it looks like it was made specifically for our quilt. Again, it goes with our rainbow theme perfectly. 

We gave it to Sally yesterday, she and her husband both love it and we're so pleased. I can't wait to meet the little bundle of joy and see him or her all wrapped up in their new quilt. She kindly sent us some photographs of the quilt in babies new bedroom, and personally, I think it looks lovely!