finished: lucy’s soft blanket (or, patchwork frames quilt)

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finished quilts, lucy's soft blanket, patchwork frames quilt

I just put my kid to bed with a blanket I suspect was a bit damp.

It got dirty and I had to wash it–and I yanked it out of the dryer at 8 pm, no matter what, because I knew there’d be a scene otherwise. She’s cried over this quilt at least twice in the two weeks I took to make it.

I finished stitching down the binding with her parked next to me on the sofa, butt wedged against mine. She wanted the “soft blanket” and didn’t quite understand why it wasn’t finished yet.

Maybe I shouldn’t encourage the melodrama, but I’m pleased as punch. You see, every time I try to put her to bed with the Lizzy House Glam Garlands quilt I made for her second birthday, she begs, “Not that one not that one.” She loves the tied fleece throw my mom made her for her first Christmas. When it was in the wash, there were bedtime tears. And while Lucy still loves her Elmo blanket from Nana, I’m glad to have some of the laundry pressure taken off! And…I’m glad to have made a blanket she totally loves.

I backed it in cream double-sided fleece, as suggested by Allison Harris of Cluck Cluck Sew. Per her suggestion I did not use a batting. This quilt is so soft and so drapey, that despite the little-girl fussy cuts and the peachy color scheme, my husband almost stole it for his own couch blanket. I have washed it twice and it is holding strong.

There’s much more minky in our future.

(And I definitely pin-basted this sucker before FMQing it. I had all intentions of spray basting but totally forgot to buy a can in my frenzy to buy the Juliana Horner fabrics at Joanns. Pin basting went fine for me, but I am a fastidious pinner and use hundreds of pins.)

Lucy’s love for it isn’t all that’s special about this quilt.

This quilt is really very special to me, too, because it’s a pattern that my friend Beth at Plum and June wrote! It’s her Patchwork Frames Quilt Pattern, available over at the Birch Organic Fabrics blog. I chose to make twelve blocks, unevenly spaced, and it made for a perfect toddler-throw size. (Folks: I didn’t have to piece the minky backing. Hallelujah.)

 

The pattern was a lot of fun to stitch up. In the pattern version, which will be available shortly, Beth includes instructions for strip-piecing the outer patchwork frames, which means that the quilt top goes together super-fast. I love the combination of the fussy cuts with the sweet patchwork. The skinny inner frame plus the patchy outer frame work together to “grow up” a kiddo’s novelty quilt, don’t you think?

Thanks, Beth, for sharing your pattern. And all of you–I hope you will share photos if you decide to make up this block in any size!

Linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts‘ Finish it Up Friday

and TGIFF, this week over at BedTime Quilting!