"Baby Blue" Quilt at Portland Head Light

Portland Head Light, Fort Williams Park, Cape Elizabeth ME

Today I'm sharing a baby quilt I created for my children's preschool teacher to gift her daughter at an upcoming baby shower celebrating the soon-to-arrive first grandbaby in the family. The teacher wanted something "nautical feeling" but without any actual nautical-themed prints, so we decided on a color scheme and modeled the design after this idea. I centered the star and pieced it wonky and scrappy because she really loved the look of my "Abracadabra Audie" mini quilt. And since we were able to pull almost all of the fabrics from my stash, the layout went together really quickly!

overlooking the channel into Portland Harbor

super windy!

Thanks to a big temperature jump the past week, the last of the snow has finally melted and the weather's nice enough to want to stand near the ocean without a ski mask. I was thrilled to head to a local park to take photographs, but very much underestimated how windy it would be. With my three year old in tow, I had to skip the better vantage points because I was afraid she'd get too close to the edge of the cliff (or worse, that the quilt would blow away! ; ) Please excuse the ugly metal fence - next time I shoot at this historic landmark, I'll bring along a taller, more sure-footed assistant and stand closer to the water's edge. There are breathtaking vistas to be had if one isn't preoccupied with the possibility of losing one's child over a fifty foot bluff.

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"Baby Blue" measures 36" x 44". I straight-line quilted on either side of each seam in a pale blue and machine finished the binding using this method. My take away from the project is that I *finally* merged the binding edges correctly on the diagonal instead of giving up and doing them straight but not smooth. For some reason each time I've tried this in the past (both with and without the help of various other tutorials), I've failed miserably, but I found this really easy to follow video today and finally get it!

I wish I'd gotten shots with some of the backing fabric (a single piece of navy with small blue and white dots) and a close up of my successful binding, but my daughter, who had refused to wear socks with her sneakers, had an epic meltdown over a sore toe and was starting to draw the attention of onlookers, necessitating that we cut the shoot short to return home for an Elmo Bandaid. Apparently I need a taller, more sure-footed, and less willfully independent and tantrum-prone assistant ; ) 

If you like this quilt design, you can find the Starshine Baby Quilt pattern here!

​P.S. Just one week till my very first stint as guest poster - I'll be sharing a tutorial over on Fort Worth Fabric Studio's blog, so be sure to check it out!

Linking up with Let's Bee Social, Fabric Frenzy Friday and SEWjo Saturday.