Raspberry Orange Chevrons: A Baby Quilt Finish

I feel likes its been absolutely eons since I last finished a quilt, and really it probably has been.  This quilt top has been hanging around my sewing room since July just waiting ever so patiently to be basted and quilted.  I have to say, even when I'm not 8 months pregnant basting is my absolute least favorite step of the quilting process, and now that I feel about ready to pop, I like it even less, if that's possible.



After giving myself a little pep talk, I mustered up the energy and got on my hands and knees and basted like there was no tomorrow.  Luckily the quilt tops that are hanging around my sewing room are all baby size, so that at least makes it manageable.



While perusing Joann's one day, I came across this faux swirl fur fabric and knew it had to come home with me to be the backing fabric for this quilt.  It is the softest cuddliest fabric I think I have ever felt, and will be just perfect for colder winter days, and the fuscia color compliments the quilt top so well.



While I am in love with the final product, I can't say I was in love with the quilting process.  I did an all over loopy free motion quilting design (one of my standard go-to's), and between the weight this heavy backing fabric added to the quilt, and the fact that the nap of the fabric sort of made the quilt "stick" to my sewing machines quilting area/extender table, it was a less than enjoyable experience.

I found I had to "grab" the quilt in my fists and push/pull it,  as opposed to simply gliding it under my finger tips with quilting gloves like normal was the only way to successfully maneuver the quilt.  Good thing this was only a baby size quilt, because my arms were certainly feeling it!  I had a little bit of tension issues in the beginning, mainly that my upper thread kept breaking, but I found with a slow and steady approach, and setting my tension super low (I usually sew/quilt around 5, and had my machine at 2.5-3), seemed to fix the problem.  I also found in certain spots that some of the backing "fur" pulled up slightly through to the front of the quilt where my needle pierced through the fabric.  Using a slightly smaller needle helped a little, but its still visible in certain spots, especially on the white parts of the quilt.  I will say once it was washed and crinkled, its much much less noticeable, and given the uber soft and cuddly-ness of this quilt, I'll take that trade off.



This quilt has been folded and added to baby girls quilt stash, which is very quickly growing to quite a pile, but a girl can never have too many quilts, right??

Quilt Stats

Name: Raspberry Orange Chevron baby quilt

Pattern: None, designed using an array of print/print and print/white HSTs

Size:  45" x 45"

Fabrics Used:  Joel Dewberry Notting Hill magenta color way, Kona White

Backing: Faux Swirl Fur in Fuscia

Binding: Timeless Treasures Sketch in Candy

Quilting: All over loopy FMQ