Scrappy Baby Quilt

I had fun with this one. I didn't really start with a plan, just some blocks I like. A few pineapples here, a few birdies there, all surrounded in low volume prints.

Racing through the orange grove. 

One of the aspects of making a quilt like this that I enjoy most is how putting everything together is like a puzzle. I know I mentioned recently that my 1/4 seams aren't always completely accurate. Some people would really worry about that, but since they're always off by the same amount it just kind of works out. 

Leaping foxes. 

Also, I've become way less focused on 'perfect' intersections. Though, I admit, I do get annoyed if things don't line up the way I wanted them to. Here my measurements worked out. 

The whole shebang.

I ended up with three central pineapple blocks. Each with a fussy cut center. They're surrounded by 8 birds on the long sides. I kind of wish that I had them both looking towards the center, but I'm ok with they way they've ended up. Then on the top and bottom are some low volume bricks, and its all finished with a set of novelty corners. 

Still life: quilt draped over bricks. 

As you can see, I had fun with this photoshoot. I walked around the citrus grove, and it was a nice evening light. The only problem was the breeze, but I think I made it work in my favor. 

Terrible editing, but I liked this picture so much!

I'm going to link up with Finish it up Friday. Tomorrow is our regional science fair. I've got to be at school at 5 am for the trip to the science fair. Then I get to wait around for hours while the students meet with the judges. I'm bringing a quilt to bind, so hopefully I'll have a finished quilt (not just top) to share soon too! Keep your fingers crossed for my little nerd squad. May they do well enough to continue competing in science fairs even if they don't win a prize!

WiP Wednesday {Pineapples}

I love finicky, time consuming, old fashioned blocks. Which is funny, because I also love the free-form unpredictable nature of improv blocks. Anyway, I like finding shortcuts to traditional blocks. I'm working on a baby quilt, and I decided that I wanted to start with square-in-square blocks as 'I Spy' type blocks.

Some fussy cut centers. 

I took some of my novelty fabrics and added on some of the Melody Miller Apples from her Picnic collection I had on the top of my stash. From there, though, I wasn't sure where to go. I decided I wanted to make pineapple blocks. I didn't want to foundation piece them though! I adapted the tutorial by Crazy Mom Quilts for foundation free pineapple blocks. For mine, the centers ended about 6" square. I added 2.5" strips to the sides, and would trim as needed to get the pineapple growing. 

Octopus center.

I sewed for 5 rounds, and they finished about 17" square. Since I didn't do any math before I started I'm not sure if they were supposed to end that size. I know I wasn't being as precise as I could be as I sewed along.

Monaluna Llama Love center. 

I used scrappy fabrics for the blocks. I tried to keep it to the more primary colors: yellow, blue, red, grey, alternating with scrappy low volume fabrics. 

Melody Miller Mustang, with a little Charley Harper peeking out. 

I liked seeing these grow, but I was over it after I finished 6 blocks. Since these are going towards a baby quilt, I decided to stop for now. 

Meow! Cat from Austria. 

I'm almost finished with the next component of the quilt. It was inspired by a relatively recent finish. Can't wait to see how they look together!

Monaluna Roost center. 

Linking up to WiP Wednesday with Lee from Freshly Pieced!