Sewing Reveal: Baby Kaitlyn's Herringbone Quilt

This sweet little quilt will be gifted to a friend in celebration of her baby girl.  This is the second herringbone quilt I've made and this one went much quicker, but it being baby sized probably has more to do finishing it quickly than my prowess as a sewer.

Quilt Inspiration: Baby Kaitlyn's Owl Mobile in Lavender and Teal

Inspiration for this quilt was this adorable sleeping owl mobile in the baby's room.  I thought about adding an applique owl to the back, but I chickened out since I have never done applique before.  Since this was a gift; figured it wasn't the best time to experiment.

Once again, I used Maureen Cracknell's fantastic tutorial for the quilt as you go herringbone quilt. The quilt as you go method is great for instant gratification! 

Kaitlyn's Baby Blanket Finished Size:
38" x 52.5" (lost about 2 inches in both L & W after washing)

FABRICS:

* 14 fat quarters of Riley Blake's Lovey Dovey in Purple by Doodlebug Designs

Cut them into strips measuring 2.5" x 10"
(14 strips of fabric per quarter)

* Backing:
1.5 yards of Westminster's Fox Trot in Dusk by Tula Pink 

*1/3 yard of the yard of extra striped fabric purchased, to make the one inch bias tape from the striped fabric.

Using a "whipped backstitch" I added the baby girl's name and birth year.  Pretty sure there is an opportunity for improvement here, but I'm not sure what I did wrong.
Since I haven't mailed it yet, I'm contemplating ripping it out and using permanent ink instead of my attempt at embroidery. Can't decide.






UPDATE: Ripped it out.  Nothing was better than the chicken scratch embroidered handwriting I had done.  I used a ink transfer pen to add the baby's name, MUCH MUCH BETTER.

Minor Scaling for baby size quilt:

Maureen's finished quilt in the tutorial was 62" squared using eight 8" wide panels; but for the smaller quilt, I ended up making eight 5.5" wide panels.

I lined up the center seams and laid the quilt over our larger quilt made with Maureen's 8" wide panels so you can compare.

I considered using the leftovers from the front as an accent stripe across the back, but in the end, I just wasn't feeling it and left it off.


It might not look like a thick blanket, but I learned it really is super warm.  While attaching the binding (by hand, the results are so much nicer than machine) and the blanket was on my lap... I started to become really toasty.








The next sewing project - curtains for the guest room!

After drooling at fabrics online, I ordered fabric swatches from a couple different places.  The guest room faces south but still gets a ton of early morning sun, drapes will make such a difference for those that want to sleep late.
The only part that makes me nervous is that the rod will have to be mounted to our concrete ceiling... hoping my local Ace hardware store might rent out concrete drills. Granted this will be a much smaller project than the living room curtains, so I think I can DIY it, but I certainly appreciate curtain installers much more after seeing the work that went into it.