Thursday, April 25, 2013

Another Baby Quilt


This is a quilt made for some dear friends of our late daughter who are expecting a baby boy soon. I learned from daughter Susan that the mothers of this little boy are decorating his nursery with a beach or ocean theme.  I found two wonderful fish and seashell coordinating fabrics at a local quilt fabric store.  Actually, several years ago I had used one of these fabrics to back my quilt called "Lake Michigan Beach Boys," a quilt that hangs in my studio, and a duplicate of that quilt was given to Susan for her 40th birthday.

I'll be able to present this quilt to these friends when next I am in California.

I "fussy cut" the larger fish images from the primary fabric.  It was printed as wide stripes, featuring the fish alternating with the seashell and alphabet stripe.  This latter stripe I used as the top and bottom borders.  I also used from that section the shells and seaweeds that form the "cornerstones" of the sashing. The side borders are the coordinating, "tossed fish" fabric.  The sashing is a fun fabric that looks as if paint had been splashed onto it.  The binding is a wonderful stripe that contains all the colors in the quilt.

I had a stripe in my stash that has made an appearance in a number of baby quilts to use for the narrow inner border.  For the backing, I used a sailboat print, another fabric printed as stripes.

Good friend Rita did the quilting, using an all-over pattern called "Double Bubbles," which fit in beautifully with the bubbles that are in the other two main fabrics.

Below are some close-up photos.  For all photos, you can "click to enlarge":


Above are close-ups that show the nice quilting that Rita did.  Too, you
can see a few of the cornerstones.  AND also one of the things
that I liked best about this quilt--the way in several of the blocks,
part of one fish is "continued" in the adjoining block!  See the yellow dotted fish above.

The baby's name will be William.  As is customary, I included the
names of the designer and piecer, as well as the quilter, the date the quilt was
completed, and where it was constructed.   A bit of the yellow sailboat fabric
can be seen in this picture.