A Baby Quilt in Record Time

Baby Boy Quilt

This quilt started with the Marine print by Dan Stiles for Birch Fabrics, I’d been thinking about using the strips but didn’t really have a plan or purpose. Enter a self-imposed crazy deadline for a baby boy quilt and I had the four solids, backing/binding fabric & matching threads picked out in my lunch break. The piecing and quilting were kept really simple, not just for speed but it’s left the quilt nice and soft.

I wish I had some better photos to share but I was only able to snap a few as I was rushing out the door with this quilt, which I’d put the final stitches in minutes before. I didn’t think to change the camera lens and then the handful of front-on pictures were accidentally deleted by the guy who warned me only minutes before not to do just that… Oh well at least I have a couple photos.

Baby Boy Quilt

My first quilt took a year from start to finish. So how long did the second one take?

Five nights. No really! How’s that for a productivity boost.

I certainly didn’t plan it that way, but that’s how long I had between hearing that a friend’s 12 week old baby had been in hospital, and when we’d be seeing his Dad next, just before Christmas. Thankfully he’s ok and back at home, but I thought a bright and fun quilt might help provide some comfort and cheer for the family.

It turns out I stuffed around a lot making my first quilt, but I learned a lot to. This time, I wish I’d thought to trim the batting and then fold over the excess backing as the binding to machine stitch, but I did the binding the standard (long) way. I’d like to learn to do machine binding for these types of quick, heavy use quilts. I did notice my seams were much straighter and more even this time around so that’s a win.

  • Jill Bell

    Great work! I’m very impressed how quickly you got this done! It’s amazing what a deadline can do for productivity ;)