Rear Window

I was shopping at Patched Works earlier this year and saw Blue Underground Studios' Rear Window pattern made up with white as the frame around the alternating blocks. As I am on a white in quilts kick (particularly for babies) and there have been and will continue to be a number of births amongst our friends and family, I impulsively picked up the pattern (I'm sure I could have figured it out on my own, but I was feeling lazy). 

Not too long thereafter, I was poking around on the Fat Quarter Shop website and came across the Bella Butterfly fabric line by Patty Sloniger. I really liked the colors, which both screamed "spring" and "baby" to me, so impulsively purchased them as well.  From the fat quarter bundle, I was able to sew two baby-sized tops.

I pieced the tops a while back while watching Downton Abbey, but then they sat while I focused on some other projects. I promised Jonah's daycare that I would donate something for their Week of the Young Child silent auction this week, so finally forced myself to load it to my quilting frame last weekend and meandered over the entire quilt with white thread. I really like the final product! I hope it raises so good money for the center and that the final recipient cherishes it for years to come. I'm hoping to get the second one quilted and out to a sweet little girl in the near future.

This quilt went together very quickly and I like how it works well with some of the larger scale fabrics that are on the market right now. I could see this becoming a go-to pattern for a quick and easy baby quilt.

Superhero Quilt

The entire twin-sized quilt.

It dawned on me when visiting my sister's house at Christmas that my soon-to-be 5 year-old nephew really only had his original baby quilt from me, as well as a simple Sesame Street-inspired fleece that I sewed for his first or second birthday (I can't seem to locate a photo on my blog), whereas his younger brother received a more big-boyish quilt for his second birthday.  It was time to do something to rectify the situation!

Superheroes are very much on Alex's mind of late and it seemed an appropriate theme for a quilt for him.  However, there are only a limited number of superhero characters available in fabric right now, namely Batman and Superman. And the fabrics are rather graphic and busy.  How exactly does one use them most effectively?

Detail view.

I toyed with the idea of designing a few logos or the logo of his current favorite, Ben 10, and appliqueing them into the center of a design, but I don't really care for applique all that much, and I knew that I wouldn't be able to find matching character fabric for it. After much consideration, I decided the best route would be to find a pattern that would use large-ish squares that would let the novelty fabric shine. At this point, I recalled that Atkinson Designs' Slide Show pattern was a pretty easy sew and would allow the novelty fabrics to show (I made this small one up as a charity quilt last spring).  I purchased fat quarters online and decided to use a navy lattice to bring things together for the twin sized quilt. I love the scattered solid squares of yellow and red that pick up the colors in the novelty fabrics.

Another detail view.

Trudie Hughes quilted this one for me with navy thread in a very linear pattern I selected and turned it around in 24 hours, which meant I was able to ship it to Ohio in time for Alex's birthday yesterday. I hear that he was pleased with it (and was impressed that it included BOTH Batman and Superman). Score!!! I have a ton of extra fabric left over from the backing (I discovered I could cut the fabric in the opposite way and it used significantly less yardage), so when I get to it, I think I'll whip up a couple of matching pillowcases.