The Daddy Quilt

The Daddy Quilt...

Rowan's first quilt. Colors and (most of the) fabrics picked by Daddy, layout completed by consensus, everything else done by Mommy. Originally there was going to be a Mommy Quilt as well. The fabric was cut, so maybe down the road sometime.

• Crib size (28x52-ish)
• Basic patchwork
• Machine pieced and quilted
• Completed in 2014
• Lives with me 
• Fabric includes some Moda (not sure of artist), some Tula Pink, and some unknown. The orange-salmon fabric with white tallships on it was Leland's shirt in a previous life.

6 months pregnant

When I was putting this quilt together, I wanted the quilt to have a classic feel and I wanted to follow my basic kid quilt rules: comes together quickly, and nothing too fiddly. More seams = more opportunities to come apart, especially for something that's going to get washed multiple times. And not overly baby-ish. I wanted the quilt to be able to age up at least to some degree - to still be acceptable as a five year old's blanky.

I was drawn to simple patchwork squares. This design showcases the fabric, it's simple, timeless, and easy.

Inspiration

Basic patchwork is a chameleon that can be anything depending on the fabric choices.

Delicate and sweet...

Pretty By Hand

Chic and modern...

Waterpenny Quilts

Cheerful and sophisticated...

Red Pepper Quilts

And so on. For this quilt, Leland picked the colors and selected two or three fabrics; I filled in the rest. Neither of us wanted this to be a traditional pink-explosion "girl" quilt. I love the colors - teal, orange, and brown - and also love how the fabric shows off some of his favorite things, namely bicycles and the ocean.

We played around with the layout for a while before hitting on this arrangement, creating a secondary pattern out of the individual colors. It needed something more, so I added that single yellow square in the bottom corner. I love it.

I've gifted my share of baby quilts at this point, and I wasn't sure exactly how much use they got while the baby was small. But to my delight, we use the quilt all the time. The size is versatile and the weight is perfect for play and sleep. She's snoozing under it at this very moment. We use it for tummy time, naps, as a picnic blanket, and for growing up so fast *sniff*.