Baby Blocks Quilt

The width of the four 6" blocks at 24" was too small for the 30" minimum my guild requires for a baby quilt. When I added borders, I wanted to be sure not to exceed the size of my backing fabric, both in width and length.

• Had to add border - 3" each side
• inner line -yellow ½" wide fussy cut at 1"
• main border cut at 2½" wood grain horizontal, finish at 2"
• binding - yellow ½" wide cut at  2½ " wide
• Backing birds
• top 4 x 6" = 24" wide; add two 3" borders = 30"; WOF = 42"   ✓
• top 6 x 6" = 36" high; add two 3" borders = 42"; have 1¼ yd  = 45"  ✓

Previous post (dated 1/4/25) describes the arrangement of the blocks. That post did not contain the teal woodgrain fabric I used for the border. I reserved using the bird fabric as backing, instead of as a border, since its scale lent itself better to that.

Next up is the quilting. My first proposal was a simple diagonal grid (left image). I did not like crossing those center squares, though. I tried diagonal lines that skirted those central squares. This quilting was more dense than I wanted (center image). Then I considered, with all this squareness, some curves might be welcome. I tried the illusion of circles, sewn as a sequence of curves; I chose this rounded option (right image).

I stitched the curves one arc at a time (one fourth of a circle) using my HQ Half Circle Templates I used the outer edge of the 8" half-circle with a ½" echo foot, forcing the arcs to hit at the corners of the 6" squares. Completing one row at a time, per the following diagram, I stitched over to the right on the 1, 2, 3' s and back to the left with the 4's. 

The result looks deceptively like circles.

The borders have more curved squares, made freehand with arcs. I can do small curves freehand, but my skills are not smooth enough to do the larger curves without a template. Highlighter tape that I pencil-marked at intervals helped me line up the points directly across from the squares in the blocks. Highlighter tape  peels off with no sticky residue. I use one strip over and over again, lifting and moving it periodically as I stitch along, so I only have to mark those few vertical slashes once.

I used the same yellow fabric from the narrow insert for the binding. Here is a closeup of the quilt corner with the binding attached; also shown is the FMQ on the border as seen from the back.

 

  

Next are full photos of the front and the back. The finished size is 29½" x 41½". This was a fun, relatively quick project that I am pleased to say was made completely from my stash!