I could go on a rant about gender/sewing/colours etc here but I won't as Molly, the creator of the pattern quite clearly states she doesn't agree with genderising colours/patterns etc but created this quilt for a particular baby boy, hence the name.
The starting point for this quilt was when I saw the cat print fabric on M is for Make. Well actually the starting point was of course my friend having her baby girl but when I saw the cat fabric, that's when I knew I was going to make her a quilt as my friend loves cats and knitting so this 'stack-o-cats' fabric featuring cats with balls of wool was just perfect! I couldn't decide between the two colour-ways of the print so I ordered both thinking I would find fabrics in my stash to co-ordinate (like I did on my first quilt). However I could only find the green, violet and the coral fabric in my stash so I contacted Kate at 'M is for Make' and she was brilliant! (I'm not getting any sponsorship or freebies from them, I just happen to love their selection of fabrics, and their customer service). She gave me a list of options that all went really well and I picked out some solids, and the lovely Atelier Brunette tangerine. The white is a lovely quality double sheet I found in our local charity shop (for £1) and the binding is Tangerine Kona, also used in the quilt. I bought the cotton batting from my local Hobbycraft store.
I am so pleased with how this quilt turned out! I love the combination of colours but I think it's the expanses of white that really set the colours off and make this quilt so nice and bold. I used the Purl Soho tutorials again, for making double-fold binding, sewing on double-fold binding, and slip stitching, as I find these so clear and helpful. The quilt instructions by Molly are also easy to follow and the nice straight lines make for easy quilting. I think my next quilting challenge might be to try some more free-form quilting, using circles and waves instead of just straight lines. So many things I've read about quilting say a walking foot makes a huge difference but for my Bernina that would mean £80-100 so I think that will need to wait a while. In the meantime I've got a foot my mum used for free-hand machine embroidery so I'm going to do some experiments with that. There's also the rabbit hole of quilting blogs which I've just discovered so I may be spending a lot of my time getting inspiration from them!
Lovely! I like the use of triangles to make chevrons.
ReplyDeleteThanks Claire! It's really effective isn't it?!
DeleteLovely quilt! I really love that fabric range too. I'm sure this will be a much appreciated gift.
ReplyDeleteThanks Kerry. Yes I thought the fabric would appeal to you too!
DeleteI love a good rant about gender-based colors, no matter the occasion. And I love the ones you picked for this little quilt! Any kiddo or adult could appreciate these :)
ReplyDeleteHaha oh well, I'm sure I'll have a few good rants on it to come! Yes, the good thing about buying fabrics for quilts, as opposed to stash-busting, is I've got left-overs I can use for another quilt!
DeleteLovely! The colours are really nice. And, yes, the whole gender based colour thing. Until he went to school, pink was Small Boy's favourite colour. Now it's deemed a girl's colour, apparently!
ReplyDeleteThanks Helen. That's such a shame your son doesn't like pink anymore but I think it's really hard for them not to absorb these influences once they're at school.
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