Stars at Play Baby Quilt {Island Batik Finish}

This little baby quilt was such a fun and fast finish! The pieced borders were added in a cinch!

This quilt is 36.5" square prior to quilting, so I was able to use a single width of flannel for backing. I also pieced the batting together with a large zig-zag stitch. Waste not!

Pressed, pinned, and ready to quilt!

I quilted this with a leafy meander just like my Antietam baby quilt with white thread. I love quilting baby quilts -- I don't need a chair to support the rest of the quilt! 

I love the way that the leaves pop with this quilting motif! I used the purple binding that I had originally thought that I would use to bind my 30 Pearls quilt. It was the perfect length for this quilt -- I only had to trim the tails an inch and a half to join them at the end! I bound this completely by machine and used purple Aurifil which blended beautifully with the purple batik binding fabric!

I learned with this quilt that yellow is hard to photograph. This quilt is a whole lotta yellow.

I like the way that the white background fabric connects the stars.

The star close up shows a great view of the quilting.

The flannel that I used is a white and pink diagonal plaid.

Now to get this quilt all ready to send off for baby snuggles!

Quilt Stats:
Name: Stars at Play
Design: based on a mini quilt pattern by Amanda Morrison (@honeybunnyanddoll)
Fabrics: Various Island Batik fabric basics, pink and white flannel backing
Size: 36 inches square
Quilting: leafy meander in white Aurifil
Future: Baby quilt for a friend
Started: June 2018
Finished: July 2018

Sharing at Needle and Thread Thursday!

Pattern Play and Secondary Designs {July IBA Challenge}

This month's Island Batik Ambassador theme is pattern play and secondary designs!

What exactly are secondary designs as they relate to quilts and quilting? I think the best, simplest explanation of a secondary design is that it is the additional designs that arise when pieced blocks are placed next to one another. I think the most common example of a quilt with secondary designs is the traditional Storm at Sea quilt.

Image from Generations Quilt Patterns

While this quilt is, when broken down into its parts, are square in a square units and pieced sashings, putting things together results in our eyes seeing stars as well as the illusion of waves.

Two block quilts also frequently produce secondary designs. If you haven't made one yourself, you've probably seen someone make a Wanta Fanta block from the Bee Hive collection! 

Image from Blossom Heart Quilts

Another one of my favorites is the Carol quilt from Kitchen Table Quilting! In this quilt, the blocks create a lattice effect.

Image from Kitchen Table Quilting

Remember my two Blue in Bloom quilts? These quilts definitely make use of secondary designs!

I created a Pinterest board for secondary designs and two block quilts, too! Check it out for more inspirations. 

For my project for this month, I'm making a two block quilt using snowball blocks and Missouri stars that will be a baby sized version of a very cute mini quilt my sister made a while ago:

Her blocks are 6" finished and her mini is about 24" square. My blocks will be 9" finished and my quilt will be about 36" square, which will be a perfect little baby quilt! For my quilt, I pulled yellow, purple, and pink Island Batik fabrics and added in a white solid.

The yellow dot print in the back will be my main fabric replacing Amanda's jellyfish. My stars will be an assortment of pink, purple, and yellow and I'll use white in the same places as the original. I already have purple binding set aside (my failed binding from my 30 Pearls quilt!) for this project and I'll be getting flannel for the backing since it will be a baby quilt.

The four full snowball blocks are done (I'll need to make eight half-snowballs!).

I've started cutting and sewing on some of the parts and pieces of my Missouri star blocks and have really just made a mess of my cutting board.

Happy Friday! Sharing at Main Crush Monday!