Baby Quilt Challenge

Last fall, I had been reading on quilting blogs about “shopping your stash” instead of running out to buy more fabric for a new project. So, when my daughter’s best friend had a little boy in mid-November 2010, I challenged myself to dig into my stash and scrap bins and make a quilt for baby Alex!

A recent fascination with Irish Chain made the pattern choice easy. But, as fast as my scrap bins are filling, they are still limited… so selecting coordinating colors was difficult, especially since I wanted to stay with bright, crayon colors. It was an interesting process of trying out different scraps together.

I’m pleased that I was able to make this baby quilt with no purchases whatsoever… I even used two pieces of batting that I zigzagged together.  Because I was using scraps, some of the animal faces, tractors, fire engines, etc. got cut off but I think they're cute... I especially like the monkey tail on one of the squares... and the giraffe, peeking through the "window" square.   

I worried about what to use for the back until I remembered remnants of a duvet cover I had made for one of my grandsons. I did the quilting myself since it was a small quilt… it’s not perfect but then, neither am I.

I got to hold baby Alex yesterday afternoon at my granddaughter’s birthday party… he is so sweet! Love the chubby little cheeks….