Times Square Baby Quilt

I've mentioned here before, and I'm sure I'll mention it again, but I believe every baby deserves a handmade baby quilt, preferably made by her mother. And so, when I found out I was having twins, I felt immediate pressure. I knew I could definitely get one baby quilt made by the time they were born, but two? I wasn't sure how I'd be feeling throughout the pregnancy. Luckily, my second trimester was pretty good, and I still have good days, even now. Because I felt the pressure of time (I knew making baby quilts after having twins was going to be a long shot at best...), I opted to make a quilt I already had cut out even though it was a bit big, and a really simple quilt I'd been wanting to make from Vintage Quilt Revival, the Times Square quilt.

The Times Square quilt was a little bigger than I needed, so I opted to change the outside border sizes and I also assembled it differently than instructed, adjusting the block sizes as well. I chose to make flying geese 4 at a time, using differently colored squares, and it worked out really well. 

I had a hard time deciding on my color scheme at first. I was really sure I was going to do magenta, mint, and butter yellow, but on a whim I tried out navy in place of the yellow and loved it. I decided to bind it in the yellow to brighten it and give a bit of contrast, and I'm really pleased with it. All the fabrics, except for the backing, were already in my stash, and it didn't use much fabric since it's such a minimalist design. The one trick was that I ended up cutting up my entire fat quarter of one of the magenta prints because, with my crazy pregnant brain, I literally could not cut it the right size. I mis-cut it three times before finally getting it right. After that, I took a little break...wish I'd taken one sooner! :-)

I wanted to back it in flannel, and found some Michael Miller flannel on Fat Quarter Shop for only $8.50 a yard, and I was totally willing to try it out for that price! It may not be as super soft as some flannels I've used, but it's pretty good. We'll see how it washes up.

The quilt finished up at 45" square, and I had Abby Latimer quilt it with a wave design that I had had in mind since I started the quilt. I really love it and I feel like it softens the straight line design really well. 

Now the only trick is deciding which baby gets it...

Times Square baby quilt

completed July 2016

quilted by Abby Latimer