30 Days of Sewing: Day 1

After completing my first day of the 30 Days of Sewing project I am thrilled to share with you my Simple Modern Baby Quilt.  I spent longer than 30 minutes finishing this project up yesterday, but that's okay, I just wanted to see it done already!

The pattern is from Oh, Fransson! and I have been working on this project since... February 26th, 2010 according to this blog post.  I used a lot of the pattern to start, but sort of went of on my own after I finished the top.

I'm not totally happy with the photo above.  The quilt is hanging here and seems a little wonky.  The colours also seem sort of washed out.  I'll try for some outdoors later.

As you can see,  I went all out for the tree appliqué.  The appliqué is an exact image of the small tree used as the main pattern fabric.  Each of the leaves was sewn on individually.

I also changed the back, using a simple solid brown cotton and quilting with coloured leaves.  I didn't do too much of the quilting, I could definitely go back and add more if I deem it necessary later.

The binding was a little tricky, I'd never choose a geometric pattern like this again for binding, or for anything that needs to be straight for that matter. 

Every step of this quilt was a challenge for me.  I was patient and walked away when I got frustrated (that's why it took me so long to finish), but none of it really came easily.  Every step I completed seemed more challenging than the last.

I'm very happy with the final blanket however:  I love the size and the weight of it,  I love all the fabrics I chose and how they work together,  I love that I will put it away to use with my baby, someday.

According to this post, Oh Fransson! is in the process of updating her Simple Modern Baby Quilt pattern.  The version I have was a great and I really recommend anything from the site.  There are a few free quilt patterns on the site as well as lots of great tutorials.