Houndstooth baby quilt

Vanessa Chistenson has a wonderful blog filled with tutorials and patterns (like the fabric ornaments I made in December). When I saw her houndstooth quilt pattern, I was in love. I had promised Dustin not too much pink for baby's room, so I thought a chic dark-brown and beige houndstooth quilt would be perfect: a simple design to complement the "houses!" baby comforter.

This is the first quilt that I've made that has required only two fabrics. I could have easily picked two Kona Solids and called it a day, but what's the fun in that? For the dark brown, I chose a Kona Solid in espresso, but for the beige, I chose a mostly cream fabric with tiny little stars (Scandinavian Christmas collection by Lynette Anderson). The stars are subtle, but if you look closely, they're there! There was a lot of repetitive cutting and piecing. It's sometimes refreshing to be on autopilot and just go, go, go: I never had to stop and decide what fabric to use next.


When it came time to pick a fabric for the backing, the workroom had just received the Karavan collection by Valori Wells, including the beautiful elephant fabric Marrakech in Blossom pink. The print is quite large and worked incredibly well as the quilt backing. I also decided to do some more free-motion machine quilting since it went quite well on The Hunger Games quilt. I did a meandering pattern in cream thread (beginner's tip: always match your bobbin thread to your top thread in case your tension isn't the same!)





I really love how this quilt turned out. It will be perfect for play time on the floor, learning to roll over, tummy time, something to throw up on... Lots of memories await!