Scattered Gems

Happy Friday!  I can't help but feel like I'm starting the weekend right with a finished quilt.  (Ok, I kind of cheated since this is the smallest one of them all, but still.)  Behold, Scattered Gems...

"Where did this come from?" you wonder.  Mostly, not from me.  My friends in the Faith circle followed my lead to make Gemstone blocks from my tutorial.  I asked for a random assortment of sizes, which I then collaged together into this 45" square-ish baby quilt, to be gifted to a local pregnancy crisis center.

I had some leftover medium-loft wool batting (not my favorite - I much prefer Warm & Natural!) that was just the right size for this particular quilt.  After trying that free motion quilting idea on a practice sandwich I decided it was easy enough, but not entirely suited to the sharp lines of the gemstone blocks.  So, I opted to accentuate the blocks' construction by quilting along the seam lines with a zig-zag stitch.

I like the effect on the scattered gems, but certainly did not anticipate the poof.  The POOF!  There is serious fluff going on here.  And this is not even high-loft batting!  Good thing I was using a zigzag stitch (ace at preventing puckers), because I think the 505 basting spray was not much of a match for medium loft batting.  Even when my walking foot was engaged (which was about half of the time - oops).

Ok, so you may think this looks silly, old-fashioned, whatever, but I'm going to confess that I like the poof on this particular quilt.  The fresh white fluffiness seems innocent and inviting.  I'd totally use this as a baby's floor quilt.  Um, so long as baby can lift her head clear of the poof....

Now I've just to blindstitch the do. Good Stitches tag on this here back and she'll be off and running.  Thanks Faith circle ladies for joining with me to make another quilted blessing!