The Quilt Engineer

Does anyone else have this problem? You make a quilt as a gift for a friend or family member and then fall in love with it SO much that it is almost painful to give away? Well, this was my experience with the Huckleberry Modern Baby Quilt. Luckily I was strong and was able to give it to it’s intended recipients, the absolutely adorable Baby Jack and his wonderful parents tonight!

It is something about the massive circle in circle and the colors. I just love this blue! It’s Kona Robin’s Egg.

I wont even try to name all the fabrics that were used in this quilt but, the “inspiration” fabric was “A is for Alligator” by Jillian Phillips for Hoffman Fabrics. I am not usually a big fan of novelty fabrics but, some of them are just perfect for baby quilts and gifts and Jillian Phillips nailed this one.

The little animals on this fabric are c-uuuuuu-ute! A square elephant and a square faced lion? Are you serious? And look at the little kangaroo! The inchworm and the chipmunk are equally adorable. But, I think the panda bear may be my favorite though.

This quilt was made for friends of mine. The dad is a musician, hence the Michael Miller “Groovy Guitar” fabric. The rest of the fabrics were picked for the mom to love!

Of course it’s a baby gift so it gets Bibs, Burps, and a Ball!

Oh, and I had some onesies left over from another gift so I appliqued a guitar on the front of one.

(My balls lately have been a little bit more wonky than I’d like. I’ve used the Purl Bee Beach Ball pattern for awhile but, I’m thinking maybe I’ve used the same paper pattern too many times and have trimmed down the edges a bit thus resulting in a more wonky ball than originally. Maybe it’s time for me to come up with my own pattern!)

I’m SO in love with the bib and burp cloth too. For a minute, I was really trying to justify at least keeping them and just giving the quilt away maybe with the ball. But, I figured Jack could use them a little bit more than I could. (Sniff. . .) Once again, I had to take a deep breath and reach deep inside for the strength to give these away as well. (Wiping away a tear. . .)

The Bibs and Burp Cloths are both backed in the flannel “A is for Alligator” fabric.

There’s only one thing that is comforting in a situation like this and that is to know that these particular friends will love and appreciate this just as much as I do.

So, I had to name this quilt the “Huckleberry”. This was the dad’s idea of a great baby name but, I see that mom has prevailed with awesome strong affirming name of Jack. But, for better or worse, the name Huckleberry is going to stick with this quilt.

The circle in circle was pieced with the Dale Fleming’s 6-Minute Circle method. It took a few more minutes than six since this was such a large circle. It also took a lot of tape to make the freezer paper the proper width and a whole bunch of crawling around on the floor. But, all in all, it was a fairly straightforward process.

I quilted this with concentric circles in the blue area. And the big patchwork circle in the middle is stippled.

The back is a random selection of patchwork rectangles from”leftover fabric from the quilt front separated by strips of the Kona Robin’s Egg. The finished size of this quilt is: 43 x 44″. I love how you can see the quilting lines on the back of the quilt too!

You can’t have a gift without a card, can you? This one is pretty simple. Just a printed blue circle in a black circle which mimics the quilt design.

And, of course here it is all bundled up and ready to be delivered.

Goodbye precious quilt. Goodbye. (I need some support here. Please tell me I’m not the only one with this problem. . .)