Quilt for Baby Boy

I have had this kit for a Vibrations quilt, designed by Nancy Mahoney, waiting patiently in my stash for nearly a decade. Purchased back on the east coast in North Carolina while visiting my sister – I am a west coaster, living in California – the quilt had a modern look to it which was not as prevalent then as it is in today's market. The kit caught my eye as being different, both in look and technique. I promised myself I would make it some day, when conditions were appropriate, and when the mood struck me.

A few years later I saw this melamine tray in a discount department store (Ross I believe) that reminded me I had that kit. I thought the tray and quilt would make a serendipitous pairing.

Conditions became appropriate and the mood struck me. My daughter's sister-in-law is expecting a baby boy mid-February. Her tastes run to cleaner, straighter lines and she is not a fan of cutesy baby prints. My daughter saw this kit in my stash and said it would fit the bill perfectly, even matching the colors of the nursery. It was kismet.

Nuances fabric by P&B textiles has been discontinued. I found a blog mentioning this fabric and it dates back to March 28, 2011 (http://athreadfromtheedge.blogspot.com/2011/03/jacksons-quilt-join-me.html) There are six solid tones of turquoise on one width of fabric. Similarly there is a six-toned taupe fabric colorway.

By cutting on either side of the color transition lines, I got two tone triangles that are joined to make a pattern. The two palest turquoises are shown on my design wall as the four corners, made of two triangles each, eight triangles in total. Fussy cutting each of these 64 triangles individually was the most time consuming portion of making this kit, even more so than the assembly. But with careful cutting, I knew that the color lines would align well for joining, and they did.

In the center are triangles of the darker blue from the corners and an additional four hues. The fabric had six color stripes but I chose to omit the darkest. Since this was destined to be a baby quilt, I thought the deepest tone was too heavy.

These are the darks I omitted from the taupe and the turquoise fabrics.

I had lots of leftovers. These are the turquoise leftovers...

... and these are the taupe leftovers.

These are the skinny strips from within the colors bands.

When I joined triangles to form right triangle half blocks then full square blocks I pressed my seams in a consist direction and the seams nested almost effortlessly. I used numbered pins that I bought at the 2018 Road to California quilt show to keep track of the block placement. The pin orientation helped me know which direction to press.

This is the layout of 16 blocks in a four by four array. Each block consisted of four right triangles. Keeping the placement and orientation was challenging because the blue tones and taupe tones in some cut triangles were so similar that being viewed horizontal on a counter or displayed vertical on a wall affected the darkness they appeared to be. But I was careful and won the battle only having to take out one seam I goofed on.

It was time to select the binding. The binding fabric that came with the kit was a very deep solid turquoise that I rejected as too dark and oppressive, especially against the light-colored corner edge blocks. I needed something more in the medium toned family.

I went to my stash to explore other  options. I was hoping for a subtle print in tones of both taupe and turquoise. Displayed on the left side, I found a beige two-tone stripe, a line grid, and a turquoise two-tone stripe. I rejected the aqua and taupe grid, because the aqua lines were not quite close enough to the turquoise shades. Also the grid lines could wobble in the binding and look off-kilter. Looking on the right column, the kit default binding fabric is at the top. It was too dark. The whimsical feel of the next print down print seemed to fight the contemporary mood of the quilt. I liked the beige and white polka dots, at the bottom – I always do and they are sort of my signature; but the white splotches were a bit too stark.

Whatever binding I chose needed to go with the backing as well. I had a muted squares fabric in my stash. I must have really liked it or else it has been really marked down and inexpensive because I had 5⅔ yards of it – more than enough for a quilt  48" x 48". It seemed to match the squareness and angularity of the front and the abstractness reinforced the contemporary vibe.

I narrowed my binding choices down to a two tone turquoise stripe...

... or a two tone beige stripe.

I looked at them against that backing and chose the turquoise stripe. I also reasoned that a light colored binding on a baby quilt would show dirt more readily.

The name for the stripe clinched it for me. It was called Caterwauling Tales by Sue Marsh © 2011.

I made my binding from a 2¼" strip, folded it in half. I cut my binding 2¼" wide so it will finish at ⅜". I feel a finished ½" binding is too wide and intrusive and yet a finished ¼" binding is too hard for me to control and keep even.

As I was sandwiching my top, bamboo batting, and backing for quilting I pondered what to name this quilt so I could make my signature, grosgrain ribbon labels. I typically attach the labels right after quilting so the ends are captured beneath the binding. The names I considered (and rejected) were Vibrations (given name), Taupe and Turquoise or Earth and Sky (descriptive but both unimaginative), Diamond in the Sky, (too long and pretentious) Oh, Boy! or Shades of Boy (both contenders). I decided on Oh Boy and made my labels on turquoise grosgrain ribbon. I left off the exclamation point after the "Y" because it looked like a blob without a definitive space between the bottom dot and the upright line. I also make a label with my initials and the year.

Here are the tools I used to help me make my quilting tidy. I laid down a piece of masking tape to help me evenly space the oscillating squiggles that progressed in size within a triangle.  I used a wavy ruler - Handi-Quilter F Wave -  to guide me in forming smooth waves. I quilted the blue areas in a variegated blue thread and the brown areas in a taupe thread. Switching thread colors back and forth was not a real issue. I had to do it only twice since I stitched the small central squiggles in blue, changed to do the small central squiggles in taupe and the outer waves in taupe, and last changed back to finish the outer waves in blue. Mine is a Handi-Quilter Sweet Sixteen sit down machine so I have the freedom of working on separate areas of the quilt at a time. It helps me to do all areas that require the same muscle memory at once.  I was much better at doing the squiggles and the waves in a certain direction, so I must admit that I kept changing the orientation of the quilt to suit the way I was able to produce the smoothest, least jagged results. 

I had to decide how to orient each wave - two bumps up or two bumps down relative to the center. I put down a plastic page protector and drew both options with a white board marker. I chose a central bump up (away from block center) and partial bumps up at either end because I could transition the wave to look more continuous at the corners with that option. 

  

I had to eyeball the corners where two waves met and guide it free hand but I managed to get away with it. This is the completed effect in one block. It has sort of a splat look. Perhaps I should have named the quilt SPLAT!

This is how two blocks side by side play off each other.

Then, as I was trimming my quilt edges in preparation to adding the binding, I found this deep fold on the back from where I had caught the backing underneath while quilting. I must have been concentrating too hard on holding the wave ruler just so. "Aargh!" 

At least it was near the edge and could be remedied without too much grief. It could even be called a good grief as Charlie brown might say.

I replaced the wave freehand without the ruler by following the path left by the previous wave stitches I ripped out. I was extremely lucky that I had not inadvertently over-trimmed the backing fabric. Good fortune prevailed since I did not tear a hole in the top when removing the stitches. Now I could finish the trimming, add the labels and bind it. Here is a view of the back with the labels down at the two lower corners

A closeup of the lower two corners of the back side of the quilt reveals the two labels, one identifying who made the quilt and when, and the other specifying the quilt name. I hand stitch the labels on at a 45° angle and tuck the ends under the binding which is subsequently hand stitched to the back.

Photographed in the outdoor sunshine, is a full front view view of Oh Boy, complete with the requisite fingers and legs of my holding husband peeking out above and below.

After I washed it twice, it crinkled up nicely and got softer. Here is Oh Boy draped over our deep navy velvet chair. Whether as a wall hanging in the nursery or as a play mat in other places, I hope Oh Boy is enjoyed and used often. May it get dragged around and become tattered in its recipient's chubby little hands in his toddler years. And chubby those little hands will be. Wyatt came into this world Monday, February 18th, weighing in at a whopping 10 lb even.

While the proud mom and dad are showing off their new baby, I will be sharing this quilt at MCM #149.