Little Critters quilt

When I saw the Little Critters fabric by Moda I just had to buy some and make a quilt with them as the animals were too cute to resist.  I bought two panels so I could get all 4 animals.  This post is quite picture heavy - I hope you enjoy them as much as me!

Design: I already had a recipient in mind, a friend who was expecting, and my original plan was just to make a quick quilt with all four animals and a border in the middle.  However once I started thinking about it I wanted to challenge myself a bit more so I decided to only use two animals and make two design panels to go with them.  My friend Shivani had kindly lent me two quilting books when I started quilting and I found a lovely design in one of them - 'Quilting Happiness' by Christina Lane & Diane Gilleland.

Drawing of the various bits that make up the finished block.

The quilt the block came from is called the 'Odds and Ends quilt' and it was pretty involved to make up, lots of different little shapes but oh so satisfying when it started to come together!  I was only making two blocks but I can imagine a full quilt using this block would take ages! After doing the panels I realised I wanted a bit more design in the connecting borders so I used two strips of white on the outer with the patterned fabric in the middle.

making one of the squares which make up the block

Watching it come together was so satisfying!

Fabric used: The blue and yellow fabric were both from my stash, as was the back of the quilt.  The back is a fish print by Charley Harper from the Maritime Collection which I bought from Billow Fabrics as an impulse buy when using some Charley Harper Flamingo knit (which is as amazing as it sounds!) It is a beautiful print and colour and I felt it was perfect for this couple as they both love the sea, she grew up by the sea and I know he likes fishing.

Back of the quilt

Close-up of back of quilt

Quilting: You might notice an improvement on the quilting in this quilt?! Do you?! I certainly do.  This is the result of a Christmas present Walking Foot from my Dad & step-mum.  Oh my goodness I love it so much! It has made such a difference to my enjoyment of the actual quilting. No more worrying about puckers and gathers, just nice even quilting.  I used straight lines for this, 1" apart but I didn't quilt over the animals. Instead I used my new walking foot and quilted round the shape of each animal which wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it would be.
Reflections: This quilt was really good fun to make and I absolutely love how it turned out.  When I looked back at 'Quilting Happiness' I noticed that it classed this block as for 'experienced quilters' which made me feel very pleased to have tried it.  I think the overall effect of this quilt is really striking and it feels so good to have designed it myself in a way, by combining ideas from different quilt patterns.  I would like to make a quilt for myself but I don't know if I'd get as much enjoyment from it as I do from gifting them.  Though I have started working on one for Harris which I'll do bit by bit.

All ready to be packed up and sent to its new home.