This baby quilt went from a stack of fabrics to finished product in less than a month, much faster than the three months it took me to finish the last one I did. It helps to not be out of town one week out of every four, for sure. I made this quilt for the daughter of a co-worker who is a dedicated University of Michigan fan—the first thing he and his wife bought for their unborn child was a U of M onesie. Being a graduate of Michigan State, I could not bring myself to do something all maize and blue, but I did find a pink and white U of M print that I thought I could deal with and used that as the starting point for this quilt. I found a brights on white print in my stash that had the same pink in it that I used to pick the other colors, ending up using only the lime and turquoise in addition to the pink. I chose the four-patch design under the influence of Jodie’s baby quilt #2 and a pattern in a back issue of American Patchwork & Quilting magazine. My rendition ended up finishing to about 35 by 49 inches.

I quilted it using clear monofilament and two shades of YLI variegated quilting thread, all in straight lines because I was in a bit of a hurry, the baby being fourteen months old already. Encouraged by one of my quilting friends on Ravelry (yes, that’s right; I’ve hooked up with other quilters on a site designed for knitters and crocheters and spinners and such), I tried something new with the binding. Instead of attaching it to the front first and then flipping it to the back to secure the other side, I sewed it to the back and flipped it to the front and then used one of the decorative stitches on my machine to finish it. I like the effect; I think I’ll be doing this again.

In other news, the socks were not under the couch. Also, it wasn’t until last night that I remembered that this past Saturday was my 6th journalversary. Guess I’m taking our relationship for granted a little bit, but I’m sure the journal will forgive me.