Birds of a Feather - Quilt

This past weekend I went to a baby shower for a sweet friend of mine, Christine.  We'll technically, I'm not sure I can call her "mine".  Christine and Ryan rowed together in college and were quick friends.  Now, however many years later Christine is one of my few quilty friends.  Yes, as my husband is always quick to point out, I have gravitated towards "old lady" hobbies and I have few old lady friends so outside of the many blogs I read, I have very few actual friends that enjoy the same hobbies as me.  Which makes being friends with Christine all that much more fun for me!

Back in October when I found out she was expecting I knew I'd be making a quilt for her little one.  Here's the thing.  Quilts take time, money and most of all love!  They aren't quick and they surely aren't cheap so not just "anybody" gets one.  I've only got so many hours in the day!  The thing I've learned about handmades is that when you're a "maker" people rarely gift you hand made things.  I'm not sure why?  Maybe they think you don't need them because you can make them yourself.  Or maybe they are afraid you'll judge their work since you know what to look for....or maybe it's just a time thing.  Whatever the reasons, I just don't subscribe to them.  You see, nobody appreciates the time and effort it takes to make handmades more than a fellow "maker".

Anyways, long story short, I counted down the days until Christine announced if they were having a boy or a girl.  Actually, if I'm being honest, I ordered this fabric even before officially finding out.  I fell in love with it and figured if I couldn't use it for Christine's quilt I'd find somewhere to use it along the way!

Back to the quilt at hand.  The pattern is nothing fancy.  Just half square triangles that I attempted to use fabric contrast to create a pinwheel affect.  My fabric choice may not have been perfect for the look I was going for but who cares!  I love how it turned out anyways.  The squares were 6x6 cut and 5.5 x 5.5 squared up with a finished block size of 5.25 x 5.25.  Phew that's a lotta math for a Monday morning!!  The final quilt measured 40 x 50 and though that's a bit big for the teeny tiny baby that's due to arrive at the end of May, if there's one things I know for absolutely certain, it's that tiny babies grow so I'm hoping this quilt will grow with her into toddler-hood.  I flip flop on the "perfect size" for a baby quilt.  I made Abby a little quilt at 36 x 40 and it's the perfect size for her right now.  She can drag it around with her and it covers her completely when she's sleeping.  But, they grow!  And boy do they grow fast...so I'm still debating the right size for a baby quilt.  The nice thing about this larger size is that it SHOULD tuck into the crib mattress when it's time to convert to a toddler bed...which is nice.

I used Petal and Plume by Bari J for the fabric and I think it's just perfect for Christine.  She is a animal lover by nature and occupation.  She worked at the Shedd Aquarium for many years before moving this winter to Boston where she's working for another aquarium (starting tomorrow!!).

I've officially decided that 2015 is the Year of the Baby.  I've already begun work on the next baby quilt on my to-do list and have just started dreaming up the pattern/fabric ideas of my own quilt for our little peanut due early July.  I'm still up in the air if I want to wait until this little one is here before committing to anything since we aren't finding out the sex...but not having a quilt for my own little one when he/she arrives seems sort of unfitting!!  We'll see how much time I've got!  Three-ish months and counting down the days!!