Baby Brit QAL finish!

Almost 5 years ago, I hosted a QAL.

Six people joined me, along with 2 of my daughters.

You can see the quilt I made here!

My daughter Lindsay made this quilt.

I just love the colors she used!

I never would have thought of using green and yellow, along with the traditional red and blue!

Every time I visited her home, I would see the quilt top folded neatly on her shelf.  

Almost a year ago, I offered to machine quilt it for her, because I really wanted to see the quilt finished :)

I would have liked to have done a "custom" quilt pattern, but I was pressed for time.

I did an organic vertical pattern.

It's always wonderful to get a quilt finished :)

Normally, I would have used a red binding.  

I tried thinking outside the box and chose pink because it picked up the beautiful little pink roses in the fabric.

Lindsay gave me the blue and yellow to use for the back, she has a great color sense!

Baby Brit Quilt Along, week #12

I've been dying to show you my binding!

 .

Another favorite part about quilting, is making the binding.

Beautiful :)

I really like the two different sizes of polka dots next to each other.

This is what the binding looks like next to the border and am so happy that I added the red rick rack.

My finished "Baby Brit" quilt on a sunny day :)

Can you give me some suggestions on photographing a quilt? 

I can never fit the entire quilt into the photograph.

I am thrilled with the red chevron on the back, and like the red polka dot binding against it too.

Needless to say, I really love this quilt.

Thanks for all of your sweet comments on my first quilt along.

It's nice to have someone to share with :)

Baby Brit Quilt Along, week #11

 I showed you last week how I quilted in the ditch, and I think it makes the Union Jack blocks "pop".  I was afraid that if I did an "allover" design, that I might ruin the look....just because I'm not that experienced in machine quilting :)

I went to town on the sashing, doing a jigsaw design.  I tried to keep it as little and close together as possible.  I love the results!

I started seeing double after a while....that's a lot of stitching!

I wanted something different for the border.  I thought of flowers, but I did that once before.  I practiced a pretty swirl design on paper so I could get the hang of the curve of the swirls.

It's hard to see on the white, but here are the swirls!  

I'm pretty excited about the results.  I guess it just takes practice :)

This is the quilt, completely machine quilted.  I think it took me about 11 hours to quilt.  An hour for each of the Union Jack blocks, 3 hours for the jigsaw quilting, and 2 hours for the border.

I always love to look at the back of the quilt, but don't look too closely!  I really think that if my quilter didn't live in another state, I would have commissioned her to quilt my Baby Brit.  Then again, she just quilted two quilts for me and the expenses do add up.

Next week I will show you how I bound this quilt and that will be the end of our Baby Brit quilt along :)

Baby Brit Quilt Along, week #10

 I wasn't able to finish machine quilting my Baby Brit quilt, but I took a big bite out of it!  I quilted all six blocks in the ditch, along every single seam.  

It was difficult to decide how to quilt it.  I love the blocks and the fabrics in each of them and didn't want to deter from the design.  I thought quilting in the ditch would preserve the beauty of the blocks.  I am going to do some fancy quilting on the white sashing and the polka dot binding.  

Here is the photo of my pinned quilt.

I put the photo sideways because you can see it closer.

See how quilting in the ditch makes the crosses in the block pop?

I have been dying to show you the fabric I bought for the back, Riley Blake's Chevron in red!  The stripes will be vertical on the quilt.  It is hard to see in this photo, but you can tell the shape of the Union Jack block by the quilting lines.  Notice the smaller line of Chevron?  That is where I joined the two pieces of fabric together.

Another tidbit of information, it took a whole hour to quilt each block!  That is way more time than I would have expected.

Next week I will try and have the quilting finished.

How are you doing on your quilt?

Baby Brit Quilt Along, week #9

Hi everyone!  I am finally home after helping my daughter in her home for a month.  Baby Benjamin is doing well and Maisie is adjusting to having a new baby brother :)

As promised, I added the sashing to my baby brit blocks.

Originally I purchased white fabric with red polka dots for the sashing, but I felt it was too busy. I decided to sash the quilt in white. 

 I also had a difficult time choosing the fabric for the posts that go in between the sashing. The pattern suggests using the fabric used in the blocks, but it seemed to be too loud and I didn't want the posts to show up more than the blocks.  I found some pale blue Kona that I think works really well.  It is a soft color and matches the light blue polka dot and flowered fabric in the blocks.

I like it!

Now for the border.....I was going to use white but now it seems  as though there is too much white. Here is the polka dot fabric that I was going to use for the sashing.  Which do you think looks better?

I decided to go with the polka dot fabric.

By the way, the pattern tells you to cut too much fabric for the border.  Only cut seven 5"XWOF strips for the border fabric.

I like the polka dot fabric, but there is something missing....

I don't redo my quilts very often, but I just had to this time!

I unpicked all of the polka dot borders that I sewed and added some red rick rack.

I think the red rick rack adds a lot of pizzazz!

What do you think?

Next week I hope to have the machine quilting done to show you :)

Baby Brit Quilt Along, week #8

Hi everyone.  I am still staying with my daughter Rebecca and looking after her little girl Maisie, who is two years old.  Rebecca's baby boy is still in the hospital, since he was born 8 weeks early.  He is healthy, just needs to develop a little more.  I will be posting pictures of them on Wednesday, make sure and check back then, the photos are really cute!

I left my Baby Brit blocks at home, the sashing is cut but I neglected to bring them with me.  I will be returning home on October 3, and the "Baby Brit" quilt along will resume on Monday, October 8.

Here is Lindsay's last block.  I love the color combinations.  

The dark green contrasted with the striking gold :)

My Baby Brit Quilt Along will continue on Monday, October 8.

Thanks for being patient :)

Baby Brit Quilt Along, week #7

This should really be the post about sashing the Baby Brit blocks together.  I told you in week #6 that my daughter's baby was born eight weeks early, and I am staying at her home, looking after her 2 year old daughter, keeping the house clean, and giving moral support.  Baby Benjamin is back up to his birth weight, and is beginning to nurse a little.  We all hope he can come home from the hospital soon.

This is Lindsay's block.  I love all the roses, it has an antique look.

This is Rebecca's block, love the stripes and the bandana fabric.

I hope you are all working on your blocks and thinking about what kind of sashing you want to use.  

I finally found some fabric I think will work for my posts, the squares in between the sashing :)

Baby Brit Quilt Along, week #6

Hi everyone, this is the sixth and last of my blocks to show you.

This is Lindsay's block. Sorry about the side view, I wasn't able to change it.  I really like this block, the prints are each so different and the yellow really stands out!

This is Rebecca's block, I love the vintage look with her repurposed clothing.  Notice the pintucks she left in the white with blue flowers?

Rebecca had her baby boy 8 weeks early, so I am helping her as much as I can.  I won't be able to post about the sashing next week, will have to postpone that one.  I will get it done when I return home.  The baby is healthy, but has to stay in the NICU so he can develop a little more.  I will keep you updated :)

Baby Brit Quilt Along week #5

By now you should definately be thinking about what fabric you want for your sashing and your border.  Solid, print, stripe, polka dots, the choices are yours :)  I have chosen my sashing but I am stumped as to what I will choose for the posts in between the blocks.  Everything I have tried seems too bold.  

This is my fifth block.  I really like it!

This is Rebecca's block.  I like the way the stripes are all on the diagonal in different directions.

Have fun with your blocks and don't forget to post them to the "Baby Brit" flickr account :)

Baby Brit Quilt Along, Week #4

Welcome back, we are on week #4!  These blocks are so much fun to cut and sew.  After you've made the first one, you can hardly wait to see what the rest of your blocks will look like with your fabric combinations.

This is my fourth block.

Here are two of Rebecca's blocks.  She thought outside of the box and chose vintage clothing.  You can see buttons and ties, eyelets and tucks in the fabrics.

This is Lindsay's third block.  I really like the red with the green!

Alice from alidizia has joined the Baby Brit group on flickr. 

Jennifer from Project Remnant Redo has joined the group also.

Go and look at everyone's beautiful blocks.  It is always so much fun to see what others create :)

There's still time to join if you're interested. 

 Two more weeks of making blocks.  In reality, all six blocks can be made in one week if you have the time.  The seventh week we will be sewing our sashing and borders, the eighth week we will be machine quilting and the ninth and last week (October 1), we will bind our quilts.  

We will finish just in time for Rebecca to have her second baby (a boy:) due around October 31!!!