Hannah's Puff Quilt

I am so thrilled to finally show off one of my favorite baby projects, and the item that was my source of inspiration for the rest of Hannah's nursery, my sweet girl's puff quilt!!!

A few months after I discovered that I was pregnant, I started browsing for fabrics and color schemes for the nursery. I saved several photos and links, and upon going back through them I realized that there was a lot of yellow, aqua, and turquoise. The colors still seemed soft and sweet because they were often paired with white cribs and furniture, or in rooms with white trim or white walls. Since our baby furniture and wooden trim is walnut colored, and I didn't feel like painting it, I knew that I wanted white to have a real presence in each of the fabrics to bring some of that airy lightness.

I saw the stunning puff quilts that Heidi of Honey Bear Lane created for her customers, and poured over the pattern that she created, trying to decide if I could take on such an ambitious project. I emailed her and said something like, "Can a beginner sewer do this?" and she responded sweetly, "You could definitely make this quilt! I was a beginner when I made my first puff quilt, and I didn't have a pattern to follow, I was just winging it. Just don't expect complete perfection." (I'm add libbing a bit here, but it was something like that.)

With that, I decided that I would attempt to make a puff quilt for my new little one, and I dove headfirst into the world of fabric.

Almost all of my fabric was ordered online and I had an excellent experience. I found that most sellers were more than willing to indulge questions like, "Is this more of a sky blue, a turquoise blue or an aqua blue?" Several of them sent me fabric swatches to help me make up my mind, and they were all just so sweet to work with. I raced out to the mailbox every day and was delighted to find beautiful little bundles of fabric, all ready to be washed, ironed and cut. There were a few designs that weren't just right for the quilt but I didn't mind. I know that I'll put them to use in some other baby project in the future.

I had never made a quilt before and I loved mixing up the different fabrics to see which combinations complimented one another the best.

I experimented with different patterns and layouts, and took pictures of my different options so that I could choose my favorite.

Heidi's tutorial walked me through the process beautifully, and each step was broken down so that I never felt overwhelmed by the project as a whole.

I got to check off several "I have never ___ before" items after completing this project.

-I have never pieced a quilt together.

-I have never made bias tape. (Yes, she ever taught me how to make my own bias tape!)

-I have never sewn mitered corners before. (Is that the right lingo? I am still learning to speak the sewing language. :)

I made sure that the fabric used in the quilt made it's way into various projects around the nursery. Some of them I have shared already, like the fitted crib sheet and the ruffled crib skirt. But I still have a few more to share in the next few weeks.

Curious about the fabric that I used in this project?

1.) Michael Miller, Ta Dots in Ocean

2.) Yellow Ticking Stripe

3.) Cloud Nine Fabrics, Ele-Fete in Sky

4.) Riley Blake, Bloom and Grow Paisley in Blue

5.) Michael Miller, Ta Dots in Aqua

6.) Alexander Henry, Matisse in Yellow

7.) Riley Blake, Bloom and Grow Geometric in Blue

8.) Cloud Nine Fabrics, Ele-Fete in Shell

The binding is white seersucker, purchased from Hancock Fabrics. The back and bias tape are also Michael Miller Ta Dots in Ocean.

This quilt was definitely a labor of love.  It helped me to pace myself in the pregnancy, not that I had much of a choice, but the slow "one thing at a time" way of putting together a quilt reminded me of the slow but necessary way that her little body was being formed, and not to try to wish away the time.
I cannot take all of the credit for this beauty.  I had paced myself to finish 4 weeks before she was due, which was when I assumed I would be starting to get incredibly uncomfortable and too distracted to work on something like this.  However, the bed rest threw a glitch into that whole thing.  I had finished everything up until the binding, so my mom sewed the binding on it late one night when she came to visit after Hannah was born.  I showed her all of the tutorials that I had been saving, we watched a few videos on YouTube, and she pulled it off.  And it's so beautiful!!