Anna's Scrappy Quilt

You know those projects that just sit there for weeks and months, and you pick them up when things are quiet, then leave them on the back burner when the list of more important priorities grows? This was one of those projects. I started it what seems like forever ago and just chipped away at it, a block at a time. I normally like to have a fairly quick turn around on my sewing projects so this was an unusual one for me.

This quilt has also been finished for several months. It has been sitting on my "to blog" list so it's lovely to finally be able to share it. It now lives permanently on Anna's bed and has been through the wash-snuggle-wash-snuggle cycle many times.

I call it a scrappy quilt even though it doesn't have a scrappy look because when I started making it I resolved to use fabric from my scrap basket to make the blocks. I succeeded - the only fabric I purchased for this quilt was a couple of metres of the purple homespun for sashing, and the pink elephant print for the backing, which was chosen by Anna herself.

Anna's favourite block is this one. Wonder if it will remain a favourite as the years go by? The fabric is left over from this dress I made her for Christmas last year.

My favourite block is this rain cloud one. I love the rain cloud fabric - I designed it myself and had it printed through Spoonflower. The outer fabric is an Amy Butler print. The block itself doesn't stand out too much because of the purple sashing but all the blocks are different, they blend well and I like how the purple pulls them together.

You can also see the pink mini elephants in the binding - I used the backing fabric to bind this quilt.

My journey with free motion quilting continued with this project - I kept it really simple with the wavy lines which was a good way to get used to free motion with a larger quilt under the machine. I used a variegated thread for the quilting, which has yellow, pink, green and blue in it. The whole time I was putting this quilt together, I just kept asking myself "what would a 4 year old girl like?" Multicoloured thread? Check. Owls? Check. Butterflies? Check. Assorted pink fabrics? Check.

Now that this is finished it's time for Lucy to have a new quilt. It hasn't even been a year since I made this one for her, but she is fast outgrowing her cot and she sleeps with it every night and will very soon need something bigger. I have SO many scraps I was thinking of just cutting as much as possible into 5" charm squares and making a true scrappy quilt. Perhaps a supersized version of the doll's quilt I made recently? So many possibilities! It won't be happening anytime soon though - it will be another project to linger over for many months I think.