Night Owl Baby Quilt

I started making this quilt for no reason, just a whim I had a couple of weeks ago to start something new. I need to burn my way through what I consider to be a fairly excessive stash that I've built up so I thought I'd pull out some fabric in colours that I don't often use and do something with them.

It was an exercise in forcing myself out of my comfort zone  - I do seem to stick with the same colour palette a lot of the time. Primarily aquas and greys.

I had a metre and a half of this owl fabric that I thought it would be a good starting point, and the end product would find itself in my gift cupboard waiting for a new baby to come along.

I didn't have to wait long - one of my husband's colleagues had a baby boy before I even managed to get this bound!

I used six inch squares and the finished quilt is cot or play mat size. The backing is the owl fabric which I've also incorporated through the front as the feature patchwork squares. The binding is a dark blue solid.

The quilting is very simple. just straight lines on either side of every seam, using the width of my walking foot. The quilting on top is grey and the bobbin was lime green.

When I started making this I had a boy in mind, although this quilt is fairly unisex. The colours didn't come together naturally for me, it felt kind of forced and not really my style. I like it, but it's not really me. For someone who feels like they don't really have a style, I obviously do if I feel this way! Maybe it's just because I'm not used to sewing for boys?

I think I need to get out of my comfort zone more often. It's certainly much more creatively challenging! There are a couple more babies on the way amongst our friends so I'll have to work out some new colour combinations and do some more shopping from the stash. Next up I'd like to try a cross quilt.