Tiffany's Tumbler Baby Quilt

One of my sweet neighbors, Tiffany, (and a member of my Ward (church) family) is having baby number 2, hopefully the first week of April. Tiffany has a darling little girl (Stella) who is not quite 2. This time she is having a precious baby boy. I decided to make her a little quilt.

I am a bit of a fabric hoarder, collector. I really like quality quilting fabrics that you find at reputable quilt shops. Right now the yardage runs about $11.-$15. per yard. No, that is not a typo. There is nothing worse than buying and trying to work with cheap chain store fabrics. Quilts require too much time, and work to have to worry about your quilt falling apart , or bleeding all over itself in the washer. What a nightmare.

Tip: Try watching Ebay. My favorite designer fabric lines are by Moda, Robert Kaufman, Kari Pearson, Debbie Mumm, Bonnie and Camille, Kate Spain, etc.

You can visit the Moda Bakeshop by pressing the button on my blog interfacing. It is NOT for cooking. It's for sewing. They use a baking metaphor with regards to layers of fabrics that are pre-cut to sizes with baking terms. 10x10" 'Layer-Cakes' come usually 42 in a package. 5x5" 'Charm' packs come in 42 as well. You get the idea. I LOVE to purchase these and have them on hand.

As you can probably guess, sometimes it takes years to gather enough fabric to make a pieced quilt top. But by purchasing designer 'lines' of fabric they have done a lot of the guess work for you. These lines are meant to blend well, go together, and 'work'. When you need to make a quilt NOW...grabbing a 'Layer-Cake', or a couple of 'Charm' packages is a blessing.

That's what I did to make Tiffany's quilt. I chose a Charm pack by- Moda, called 'Meadow Friends'.

This is what a Charm pack looks like.

This is a stack of 42, 5x5" squares.

 

I loved the lizards, flies, frogs, and bugs.

 

Tiffany and her sweet family live across the street from us and at the end of our block is a large field, with wild flowers, ponds, ducks, and BUGS! I am sure that little baby boy will be in that field with his Daddy very soon. That's why I chose this line.

 

I recently purchased a tumbler ruler from

the Missouri Star Quilt Company

which is specifically made to use with charm packs.

It was just begging to be played with.

A closer look at the rows sewn together.

Matching seams is ALL about ironing correctly

and using pins...plenty of pins.

 

This is the first quilt I actually quilted myself on my machine. I used a white bobbin thread to match the backing I used. But then I tried matching each tumbler with its own color. So blue was outlined in blue, using a 1/4" quilting seam rule, and orange thread outlining the orange tumblers, etc.

I decided to go with brown sashing with

a large orange ric-rac to make the orange POP.

Then I chose a blue backing, and blue

polka-dot fabric for a double binding.

You can see the backing I chose in the

top right hand side of this picture. The

back should always be as cute as the front.

It's finished and ready for her baby shower.

Here is sweet Tiffany with her gift.

 

What a fun experience this quilt was to make. I used a new fabric line, new fun ruler, and had no pattern except the one I conceptualized in my brain. So it was a challenge. But the results are sew much fun.

 

 

Friend and neighbor,

Sandi