BQF: Baby Boo's Quilt

I've got a finish, and just in time for the Blogger's Quilt Festival at Amy's Creative Side, woo! This quilt is for my baby niece, who should be arriving the first week of November. It's also a finish from my Q4 2013 FAL list, woo!

Because this quilt is going to my niece (who will be the second girl out of six grandbabies--my parents are so excited) I needed to make sure it was extra special. I have an amazing niece and two nephews from my older sister, but this is my younger sister's first baby, so even more reason to make the quilt spectacular.

In January, I finished up a quilt for a cousin's wedding. My younger sister saw it, fell in love with the feathers, and told me if I ever made her a quilt, she wanted a feather. Well, I made her two.

Of all of the quilts I've made, I'd say this quilt is the most me, which is why I chose it for the BQF. The colors, the fabrics, the craziness of it all...me. In fact, it is really hard to part with it, but I'm going to because it's for such a special kidlet. (I did embroider her first initial into the top, just in case I got weak and tried to change my mind.)

It took a while to piece. Those AMH feathers take a bit of time, and paper piecing all of those geese did too. I also drafted my own arrow paper piecing pattern because I didn't find anything online that I was crazy about. Elizabeth Hartman has a quilt called "Kaleidoscope" that inspired the section right under the feathers. I had to end the quilt with a bit of classic and used friendship stars and churn dashes on the bottom row. I'd love it if my niece got into quilting one day, so she needs a bit of traditional too.

As for quilting, I used nine different threads in three different weights. I handquilted the patchwork squares in lines 1/4" apart. When I ran out of one color thread, I'd start another. It was my first time handquilting a larger piece and handquilting so densely, but I love love love how it turned out. I did some basic straight line and echo machine quilting on the feathers, the arrow, and the bottom row. And I did some wild lines on my kaleidoscope-y section. When I sewed the first line, I was pretty sure I was going to hate it, but when it all turned out, I really like it. I'm glad I tried it rather than going safe and echo quilting. I FMQ'd over the geese, including two feathers that sprout from the center.

My fabric selection was lucky ducky. I picked out all of the fabrics online and ordered, even though I hadn't seen any of them in person and had no idea if they'd match. I am so pleased with how they came together. The backing is the glasses from Geekly Chic, and the binding is Kona Charcoal with a pop of Kona Corn Yellow. On the front, I've used some Comma, some Glimma, some Flea Market Fancy, some Sew Mama Sew, and a couple of other prints from lines I can't remember.

Thanks for letting me share this quilt with you. Even though it's small, it's probably my favorite quilt finish to date. My younger sister doesn't read my blog, and I've given her absolutely no clues except for the general color palette, so here's hoping she likes it as much as I do!

I'm linking up today with BQF in the Baby Quilts Category, TGIFF hosted by Quilter in the Closet, and Finish It Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts.