Last year I was commissioned to make two baby quilts for coworkers. Baby Blue was the first that I designed and completed at the end of 2016. I was inspired by it's simple, modern design and some of it's fabrics to make Baby, Birds & Stars.

I used some scraps from Baby Blue plus more new fabric to make a simple but bright, large squared quilt top. These two tops are the first ever quilts I've made using no reclaimed or vintage fabric. I really like how both of them came out, but I will also be glad to get back to using vintage, thrifted, or reclaimed matierials as that makes me feel more at home.

For the back, I had found a really inspiring yard and wanted to make that the focus. I also wanted mitered edges, and stripes. I incorporated light grey striped cotton as well as a strip of baby blue striped flannel.

For Baby, Birds & Stars, I used a new cotton batting to make it really soft and snuggly.

Although, the quilt top and back were of a very simple geometric design, I wanted this quilt to be whimsical and fun! I quilted the center squares with free hand stars, boxes in boxes, and stars in boxes. Then I made a star boarder on the outer boxes, and a few straight lines around the parimeter of the quilt. I used vintage yellow pearl cotton, bright blue cotton thread and grey cotton thread for the quilting. The quilting is a bit spread out making this quilt puffy, fluffy and soft.

I used my fold over method to bind this quilt, so that the grey stripes bordered the front. I used a light grey thread to bind the edges. This quilt measure approximately 46" x 39 1/2".

I have been making very simple labels for this quilts this year so far. I like to put the name of the quilt, my name (Mad Cat Quilts), and the year it was completed. This label also has a message from our workplace to make it extra special for baby and family. With some labels I also include the month it was completed or add a special Mad Cat stamp.

Almost all my helpers worked on this quilt, but Tom was especially helpful when basting and quilting Baby, Birds & Stars.

This quilt was my March goal for OMG (One Monthly Goal), so I'm linking up with Red letter Quilts. And It's also on my Q1 list for the 2016 Finish Along.

I'm also linking up with Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching, as this quilt was completely hand sewn.

Finally!

My last finish was way back in February of this year, and that's too long ago!

Stars for NFG 2014 (quilt for Crimson) is my version of a baby quilt. It's quite large but I forgot to measure it! I'd guess it was about 55" square, so large enough for a lap, or small throw, but great for a baby mat or snuggly small child blanket.

I knew this quilt was for a baby boy, and although none of my quilts are gender specific in my opinion, I tried to make it a bit more boyish. I'm not sure it worked, exactly, but I like how it turned out. I also felt like my usual more muted tones would be too drab so this is my attempt at "bright" colors.

I'm going thru a traditional quilt block phase, and this is my first completed quilt using a classic block. I believe it is a variation of a sawtooth star, but quilters, correct me if I'm wrong. I made the four large stars first, then used the scraps to create the middle small star. And then I realized that if I didn't add some neutral solid fabric the quilt would just look like a messy jumble. I used one of my favorite go to grays (Connecting Threads Charcoal). to balance out.

Besides the gray, there is a mix of new and vintage fabric in Stars For NFG. All the gingham is vintage from various places and finds over time, as well as the light blues, rich green, and purpleish strips. The green dots and deep purple are from the same great ebay lot. All the bright greens, blues and teals, are parts of FQs from my favorite quilt shop in VT.

The vintage gingham had some flaws and one became a tear. I patched it using a smaller piece of the same fabric.

The back is mostly vintage green gingham with a diagonal patten using deep purple, rich green and charcoal gray. The purple and green backing is a nod to my favorite band who I've been to see with the baby's uncle.

I used a new cotton batting and dark blue cotton thread, doubled, for the quilting. I stitched in the ditch for most of the front of the quilt, except inside of some of the stars and the borders. The back really shows the quilting bc it is light colored and mostly one solid piece of vintage green gingham fabric.

I rolled the back over and quilted one line of quilting to make a sturdy binding. I have used this rolled method before, which is slightly different than the fold over method in most of my quilts. I wanted the backing to show only a little on the front as to not add too much more busyness to an already busy quilt.

This quilt has a lot of firsts. It is my first traditional block quilt, my first finished commission, the first quilt that I have sold, and my first quilt that has a label.

I used a stamp I had recently made and more of the gray fabric for the label. The stamp is a mad cat, a portrait of Flounder. I used sharpie for the quilt title. I sewed the label on the back of the quilt thru all the layers of the quilt the same way I did the gingham patch on front. I like that it gives it a bit of a punk patch feel, like the ones I used to wear on my jackets.

It was hard to get the detail of the patch label. I pre washed the label and it faded a bit, but I like the results.

This quilt had a quick time line going from request to finished quilt in three months (May 13 - Aug 8th). I haven't kept track but it may be the fastest I've made a quilt. Bippi was most helpful on this quilt, sitting under it on even hot Summer days. This quilt also did some traveling as I took it along on a few trips to the beach in order work on it.

Stars for NFG top hanging out at the beach in NJ!