Back in June my best friend and I were discussing potential first birthday party themes for her daughter, Sloane. Eventually she settled on going with a girly color theme of coral and mint. My very first thought was “that would make the most adorable quilt”. Then reality hit and I remembered I was a few weeks out from my midterm and in middle of the first trimester. Quilting wasn’t high on my priority list, but I knew eventually I’d get around to making Sloane a first birthday quilt.

It’s just the sweetest thing, so girly with all the soft colors and lots of white.

I used six different fabrics for the top, plus a striped fabric for the binding. I mixed gold in as well because I’m currently obsessed. The polka dots and pink birds were intentional to make it a little more toddler friendly. I thought about using coral thread for the quilting though I ended up going with white. I think I’m happy with that decision but not sure. The coral might have added a bit more fun. 

The back is a simple light gray crosshatch. I found this fabric at Joannes (everything else was purchased through fabric.com) and I think it might be perfect for pretty much every quilt backing. 

On to the confessions. I’ve found that with each quilt I learn something new, which is awesome. On this particular project I learned several something news.

First, the quilt is half the size it was intended to be. I’ve only made 60 x 44 quilts, which is a great size for adults (and it’s the largest size you can make while still using regular fabric for the backing). My math went wrong somewhere when I was calculating how many triangles I needed. I think I took the total number of squares and at some point divided in two one too many times to get the number of triangles. When I laid it out on the floor I realized it was more like 30 x 42. For about two seconds I thought about cutting more fabric and making it full sized. Then I realized that this quilt is for an 18 month old and this accidental size is just perfect. I also remembered that I was seven months pregnant and my back hurts. Quilting is back breaking work, so I quickly moved on.

I’ve had my sewing machine for a little over a year now and I feel like I’m finally figuring it out. I realized there is a thread cutter on the side of my sewing machine. Now I don’t have to pick up my scissors every time I need to cut the thread. This saves a huge amount of time and I feel like a bit of an idiot for not realizing it was there before. I also broke two needles making this quilt and so learned how to change the needle. The striped binding fabric is a little thicker than normal cotton and I had trouble with sewing through all the fabric on the corners.

Happy (very belated) first birthday, Sloane!

Project: 11/35
Time: ~10 hours
Tutorial: no tutorial (I can quilt on my own now!), but the layout was inspired by this
Cost: $43 (fabric was about $40 and coral thread for binding was $3; batting from my stash)