A very special stroller quilt

(If you are here because of the Blogger's Quilt Festival, welcome! Please stop by more often and leave a comment. Here is my entry.)



Finally, I present you with the most special stroller quilt ever! My baby's obviously!!!



One thing you don't know about me is that I love naming everything, from dolls, to pets, to new recipes. I've decided to call this quilt "The Good News Quilt". I started it soon after knowing I was pregnant and because I didn't know if I was expecting a boy or a girl I wanted it to be colourful and gender-free. I meant to finish it before knowing the sex of the baby, so that then I would be free to start a crib quilt in blue or pink, depending. (That crib quilt is still just in my head, because I've unable to sit down at the sewing machine in these last weeks due to my pregancy complications.) Also, I wanted a bullet-proof quilt, that will be used outside, will get dirty, will be washed lots, and survives, hence the colours. And also, who can resist the simplicity of squares? No matter what i do, it's always my favourite design!



Cutting and piecing 300 squares of just 5 cm was quite time consuming but we have a portuguese saying that is: running because you like it doesn't make you tired. It's so true! I had lots of fun with this quilt.

I've talked about this quilt previously as a sort of the "making of" (at the time I didn't want to disclose who it was for), but here goes a detail of the flannel in the back and how I chose to quilt it, which was also opened for debate, but then I decided on straight lines every 3 squares, forming a 9 patch grid.
I know I said I wanted a quilt that could be either for boy or girl, but I used some squares in pink and actually the pale pink polka dot square you can see in this picture was what started the whole thing. I went through my scraps and this was one of the tiniest bits I found so I cut the rest of it in the same size. So I'm proud to say that this quilt is entirely made out of scraps I saved since I started quilting something like one year ago.



This was all done in a week I think, but then, as always, here came the binding... or the scary monster I should say. Well, this time around I knew I didn't need to hurry, so i really took my time and I've just finished this weekend, because this was something I could do from bed. I chose a solid yellow to match the quilting and because it popped out some of the quilt top colours.



As all pet owners already know, our dear furry friends always want to be in the picture so while taking these pictures my dog Sushi decided to appear (actually, it's my fault because that corner is his favourite place to be sunbathing and I was the one who went to take pictures there while he was gone, then he came back).
He is usually pretty shy but I have to show you these "backstage pictures" because it's just too cute to be true. Remember we are talking about a really small baby quilt, righ? And Sushi is quite big, he weighs 45 kg and measures 120 cm from head to butt (not counting the tail). But out of the blue he decided to lie down on the quilt. Yes, LIE DOWN really curled up like a ball. First he looked to both sides checking if anyone was watching and then slowly he did his thing. I was trying to guess what he would do, but he surprised even me! I laughed so much!!!