Twit-Twoo

About a year ago some friends we met at university (who have now moved away from Bath, sad times) announced that they were going to have a baby. Very exciting! As you've probably guessed, I immediately started making quilt plans. A while later we found out that they were having a girl. So, I began planning my first little-girl quilt.

Picking fabrics was going to be tricky. My self-set requirements for fabrics (based on what I thought the mum-to-be would like) were:
- Owls
- Orange
- Not too much pink
This proved tricky and I spent quite a while looking for anything which would even vaguely work. Eventually I found this bundle at the appropriately-named Emma's Fabric Studio. Owls - check. Orange - check in small amounts, and I could add more in. Not too much pink - ermm... meeting two out of three requirements isn't too bad, right?

Fabrics from the studio, plus a little orange

How could you not love that owl?

The hardest thing with making this quilt was the waiting. I had asked for a rotary cutter, mat and ruler for my birthday (end of October) and the baby was due around Christmas. I knew it made sense to wait for the cutter before getting going, but it was tough! Eventually my birthday arrived and I could bring home my new toys (carrying the giant cutting mat on the train was a bit of a challenge, but we managed it). I had a few ideas for patterns, but eventually decided on one based on this quilt, one of the first quilts I fell in love with online.

So the cutting began (so much easier with the rotary cutter), as did the sewing. The blocks came together pretty quickly. The slow part was trimming them down to size - since I'd had issues matching up corners with the twins' quilts, I deliberately made the blocks too big so I could trim them to the correct size later. I spent a long, long time like this:

creating a right mess with slivers of fabric. It was all worth it though - my corners matched up exactly! I was grinning a lot as I put it together.

Completed quilt top, woop woop!

Finally I picked out fabric for the border and binding (neutrals, since this quilt top needed calming down) and backing and had a quick go at some embroidery:

As with my previous quilts, I enjoyed the quilting process a lot. I drew the lines on with a not-quite-as-washable-as-I'd-hoped orange marker and went with diagonal quilting as before. I think drawing the lines on took nearly as long as the sewing!

Quilted with binding added

I took the quilt with me on the train when Laurence and I went to visit my grandparents. I figured with 5 hours total train time that day, I could make some good progress on the hand sewing. I had 2 or 3 weeks left till the baby was due, so there was no particular rush. On the way there however, we had a call to say that she's arrived early! This was a very good incentive to speed up the hand sewing and I'd finished all but the last few inches by the end of the day.

This weekend we went to visit our friends and their now 6 month old little girl. Much fun was had by all, she has a hilarious laugh! I tried and failed to take a photo of 'happy baby plus quilt' ("umm, why have you taken me away from mummy and daddy and put me on a blanket?") so instead, here's the finished item, plus it in its new home.

That's all for now :)