the quilt that led to all the thumb twiddling

Spicy's sister is having a baby so it was time to make a new quilt. I chose a Lizzy House fox fabric (top of the stack) that would serve as my focus and pulled coordinating fabrics from the stash for the top. I ended up with yellows, greens, greys, and browns, plus kona snow for the neutral. Several of my fabrics came from the stash stack club. Those basics really come in handy. I didn't want too much white on a baby quilt, so I cut 2 blocks of snow and one of each print and varied the pieces randomly rather than making every other wedge white.

I used my own dimensions and layout but my quilt is similar to this one. I had never tried the stack and whack method before but i really like it. i can see how it would be useful for all sorts of improv-ish blocks. The top was really easy and fast to put together. the only problem i had was keeping the orientation of the pieces straight. i stitched a few of them together the wrong way but it all worked out in the end.

for the back, i used the fox fabric and added a piece of natural undyed linen. I also used a half yard of shot cotton. it's sort of an olive color with dark blue threads running through it. This quilt is fairly large for a baby quilt. of course i've forgotten the exact dimensions but it's along the lines of 44x52 or so.

The quilting is a flame-ish stipple, similar to the orange block. I used aurifil thread 50-wt in white. I did not have any difficulties quilting, but after i finished I noticed that my machine started to act up. it speeds up and slows down whenever it wants so i took it in last night to get it checked out. fingers crossed that it's nothing serious.

The binding was pulled from the brown bundle and cut on the bias. i handstitched it to the back of the quilt.

I think this type of block has great potential for a larger quilt. I'd like to revisit it someday.

Being without a sewing machine is a bit nerve-wracking. Spicy said it was like dropping your kid off at sleep-away camp. last night i cooked indian lamb meatballs, played with ifontmaker on my ipad, and read Pride and Prejudice. who knows what i'll do tonight?