Baby Quilt Challenge Revealed!

Today was guild meeting and the reveal of the Baby Quilt Challenge. The only guideline for the challenge was size - all entries were to measure 40 x 40 inches, give or take an inch here or there. This challenge was a charity challenge as all of the entries are going to be sold with 100% of the proceeds being donated to the Chester County Maternal Child Consortium. A total of 36 women participated in the challenge - the results are amazing - my fellow guild members are just fantastic.

We had a lovely selection of quilts for girls - all pretty in pink!
The blues and elephants for the boys - I just love this elephant!

The unisex baby quilts were adorable - I love the pattern and color of one in the foreground.

Here was my entry featuring the Giraffe Garden fabric from Michael Miller. The top center features the off set square in squares with a giraffe in the middle. I then surrounded the center blocks with a series of borders - 1. the first border is the striped coordinating fabric from Giraffe Garden - I let the fabric do the work for me creating the illusion of a 2 inch square pieced border, 2. the second border is a thick red border to make the center pop, 3. and the third border, the gray dot and solid blue, gives such a beautiful wavy effect and was so easy - tune in tomorrow and I'll show you how I did it!

Here's a closer look at the quilting - simple meandering, and a lot of it.

Take a look at the back - it's pieced. See the vertical strip of the striped fabric - again I made that striped fabric work for me - the 2 inch width was perfect to communicate what everyone thinks of when they think of giraffe - height!

I embroidered the 2 inch height increments on the stripe using my sewing machine.

Then I attached these little tabs into my binding on the back of the quilt to record the baby's length / height from birth through 5 years. I remembered my daughters' passion for any labels attached to their stuffed animals - they loved to fiddle with them as they cuddled up for the night.

Fun ... different - I like them!