2017 Baby Quilt #2 - Woven

Our friends the Randalls are expecting Baby #2 in August.

That's a long time away!

No hurry, right?

But they live in Myanmar and don't have a reliable way to receive mail

Lucky for me, the grandparents had planned a February visit and had some room in their luggage for a gift to ride along... 

I saw a tutorial for this quilt on the Moda Bake Shop site,

made with a coordinated fabric line.

Looked gorgeous!

The instructions were clear,

and it was easy to reduce the number of blocks

to make this a baby-size quilt.

I think the pattern - the woven look -

is enhanced in a larger quilt with more blocks,

but it was a fun experiment to make!

My only caveat is that the design requires

pressing the seams open

which isn't normally a good practice in quilting.

I had problems with some of the seams gapping,

for no apparent reason

(even with a good quarter-inch seam allowance on both sides),

that I had to re-sew before quilting.

Plus, pressing seams open takes longer and makes it harder to nest seams

and match seam intersections,

so not a technique I'm in any hurry to repeat!

But it was worth it :D

The first block I made... I made wrong.

So rather than leave it an orphan,

(or pick it apart, because who has time for THAT?!)

I experimented with making a crinkly, taggy blanket.

This is a VERY AMATEUR first attempt,

so I hope it holds together for the baby!

Inner crinkly-ness achieved compliments of:

No, there are no tortilla chips inside!

I washed out the bag and sewed a square of it inside,

in place of batting.

Whatever works, right?!

And I "wrapped" it in this little bag,

for my very Dutch friend Breanna :D

Success!  Present delivered!

And though it's really for the next baby,

I'm glad Lena is enjoying it now :D

I guess she's adapted to the tropical climate!

Snuggling in a blanket when it's probably 90F?

Yep.  She's adapted!  And adorable :D

We miss you, Randalls!