baby blanket

First things first, a blanket for this baby. It should be cuddly, sweet and small...

During the Thanksgiving sales I indulged in another cut of that darling "clothesline flora" by Kimberly Kight. It was one of my favorite background fabrics for Eleni's photos, inspired my Pink Latte quilt and still has my heart all these months later. I actually bought a stack of Kimberly Kight prints in the sales. She's a new favorite for me! Her style and scale reminds me of Denyse Schmidt - so nicely suited for patchwork.

My first try at selecting fabrics for Elora's blanket included light to medium value fabrics with several picks from Lucky Stripes and even some saturated Anna Maria Horner prints. I liked it, but it didn't seem very "baby"... So I tried narrowing my selections to lower value prints and adding a pale pink solid called Kona Pale Flesh.

Seriously, Pale Flesh. Such a terrible name for a color! I've had this shade in my stash for awhile but never actually used it. Turns out it is a lovely, subtle pink shade. In fact, I liked it so much that I decided to make every other row of triangles in her blanket Kona Pale Flesh or Tiger Stripes (which happens to match Pale Flesh quite well).

I'm cutting 3" tall triangles with the Tri-Recs ruler set. Silly me, I should have used this before! It's designed for triangle-in-squares and half square rectangles, so it would have been perfect for a few quilts I've made this year. Well, I'm using it now! These wee little triangles will finish 2.5" tall. Soooo cute.

After piecing the quilt top, I cut a 26" square of organic Sherpa cotton by Michael Miller. I've used this fabric before to make baby clothes and hats. It's cuddly, but breathable and natural with a lovely drape, since it's a knit. I basted the quilt top to the sherpa without batting to keep it from getting stiff or heavy.

On a whim I decided to hand quilt with pink size 8 pearl cotton. The sweet little work was a quick finish! I love the way the quilting dresses up the back, yet doesn't distract from the quiet patchwork front.