Snazzed up cheater quilt

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My signature welcome baby gift to friends and acquaintances and even friends of friends and family is now almost exclusively a baby quilt.  Shocking I know.  Now that I've been at this quilting thing for a few years, I love hearing how these quilts seem to be used and loved for years and years by their recipients, and that just makes my heart happy.




So when I found out that an old college friend had her baby, and it was a girl I went into immediate baby quilt gift mode and tried to think of something I could put together quickly to get to the new mommy and her bundle of joy.  Usually I plan ahead, but they didn't find out the gender, and I've found its much more fun to wait until baby is here and make a quilt more tailored to a boy or girl.

So, as I was thinking of what I could make quickly, I remembered those cheater prints I purchased from Dragon Fly Fabrics a month or so ago.  It was absolutely perfect for what I had in mind.  I quickly ironed my fabric and basted it to a piece of grey fleece and was ready to get quilting!

I have never not used batting when making a quilt before, but I am loving the weight and drape that this quilt has with a little less bulk.  The fleece backing makes it super snuggly still, but this feels more like a blanket than a full on quilt.  I will definitely be incorporating this technique more often!




I followed the faux patchwork seam lines quilting 1/4" on either side of every other square, so approximately 4" apart.  I think from start to finish this took me about an hour.  While it was beautiful as is, I felt I needed to add something a little extra to make up for my lack of actual quilt making.




Enter my Cricut Explore.  Of course second to my trusty sewing machine, this is by far my favorite new crafting toy.  I've been using it quite a bit lately making paper and vinyl projects, so when I read about how nicely it cut fabric, I decided to give it a try.  I planned out a circle scallop and text "n" for baby girl's name, applied some steam a seam and got to cutting.  It worked beautifully and just as I had imagined.  I used a zig zag stitch to complete the applique and just love this quilt to pieces.




 I seriously had to talk myself out of keeping this for myself because, you know, I also have a baby girl who's name starts with N!  You can bet I will be using my Cricut to personalize baby quilts more often (like every time) and showing them to you here on the blog.

This quilt will be going in the mail this week so it can begin getting it's baby love soon!

For the record: Cricut does not know me from Adam, I purchased the machine on my own and am passing along its rave reviews to you!