Sweet Dreams, Baby Girl!

I just finished this little crib quilt for the newest member of my husband's side of the family, Molly Claire.



I've been working on this quilt on and off for a couple of months. The pattern, one from a circa 1996 quilting magazine, combines pinwheel, half square triangle, and Irish chain blocks. It's the first time I've done an Irish chain and it came out better than I thought possible. The smallest squares in the Irish chain measure 1.5" finished and I don't think I'll attempt making them any smaller!

But it wasn't the little squares that threw me off on this quilt. No, it was the flannel backing. Even though I used a walking foot on my sewing machine and had basted the quilt well, it was plagued by a myriad of little pleats and puckers when I quilted it. Every single line had two or three annoying little pleats! First I threw the quilt down and swore at it. Then I debated ripping out all the quilting seams and redoing it, but then decided against that. There was no assurance that it wouldn't just do it again if I redid it, so I decided to take out sections of the seams and then re-quilt those sections while trying to ease out the pleats the best I could.

And ya know? It worked. I was able to remove most of the pleats and puckers and I'm largely satisfied with the backing now.

I was afraid that the pretty pink and purple flower pattern in the binding would be lost against all the other pinks, so I added a pale green border with the pink corner blocks to the original design. I think it helps set off the pink squares and relieves some of the intensity of those hot pinks. 

There's always a moment when I question how I've designed and made a quilt. Those seams aren't straight, those squares don't measure up, I've got pleats on the back, and I'm not sure about those colors. Thankfully much about a quilt seems to improve after it's been washed and dried. I felt much happier about how this one turned out the moment I took it out of the dryer and held it up to see it.

I hope Molly Claire enjoys her new quilt. In fact, I hope it's completely stained and bedraggled by the time she goes off to first grade, 'cause that's how you know a quilt has been really loved by a baby girl.