Free Motion Mavericks - Week 35 - Red and Cream

Teresa of Third Floor Quilts left a comment a couple of weeks ago, saying "I am guessing that a cot quilt is what we would call a crib quilt", to which I replied yes, and two days later it dawned on me. I'm a bit slow sometimes when confronted with the obvious.  Why not make a crib quilt?  Smaller, quicker, and no need to buy anything, the stash is to hand.

So here it is, 25 x 26 inches, a little wider than it is long so baby can be tucked in down the sides in his crib or pram.

After all the riotous scrappiness of the cot quilts I have been making, I decided it was time for a little minimalism.   

The joy with this quilt was being able to see what I was doing rather than being dazzled with lots of colours and prints  Initially I was thinking of doing straight line quilting for the lines of squares, but after some fooling around getting a walking foot jammed over the needle clamp and giving up in disgust, I free motion quilted the squares with little leaves and curls.  I thought this would leave the squares a bit bumpy, but once the broad bands of cream had been filled with serrated leaves the overall effect wasn't too bad at all.

For the quilting I used a variegated thread in pastel shades of pink, green and yellow, and of the four different red prints that I used for the squares, I used the one with the tiniest design for the binding.

The design of the backing fabric I find a bit puzzling.  Why do some of the flowers look like boiled eggs, and why have others got eyes?  Perhaps the baby will have big brothers and sisters who can provide a suitable answer.  They can also have fun counting the squares...

... picking the strawberries...

... and hamming it up as Long John Silver - aaagh, the Black Spot! 

This little quilt has been a joy to make.  The 15K treadle is running beautifully smoothly after its little bit of attention last month, which made the quilting problem free.  The piecing and binding were done on the Singer 128K, which, with its gorgeous red and gold decals, looked even prettier than ever while stitching all the red and cream.  

I think I shall have to make some more.

Here goes for week 35...

Many thanks to Quilt Musings, Alison, Gwyned, Angie, Jasmine and Heulwen for linking up last time.

If you love free motion quilting, whether you are a beginner just taking the plunge, or you have reached the stage where you can do ostrich feathers with your eyes shut and still achieve perfect symmetry, then please link up.

Remember, FMQ is FMQ, whether your machine was made last week, or it is older than your granny.

Here are the very easy and slightly elastic rules:-

1.  Link up with any recent post, ideally from the last week but within the last month, which features a free motion quilting project, whether it is a work in progress or a finish.

2.  Link back to this post in your own post and/or grab the linky button for your blog's sidebar.
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3.  Visit as many of the other participants as possible and say hello in the comments box.

4.  The link up will remain open for four days, from midnight to midnight GMT for the long weekend, Friday to Monday.

So far quilters from USA, England, Wales, Australia, Canada, Germany, Holland, New Zealand, France and Macau have taken part.  The first participant from each new country will get a special mention the following week.

Linking up to Kelly's blog My Quilt Infatuation for  Needle and Thread Thursday
and Richard and Tanya Quilts for Link a Finish Friday
and Angie's blog A Quilting Reader's Garden for WIPs Be Gone
and Michelle's Romantic Tangle for Let's Make Baby Quilts
and Sarah's blog Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Whoop Whoop Friday