Early arrival moves baby quilt to the front of the pile

This quilt finished 46" x 56".

I thought I had eight more weeks to get this baby quilt finished but the baby had different plans. After a friend delivered her baby early I decided Saturday would be spent finishing the quilt top for her new son. The top was completed earlier this year in anticipation of a new arrival. I always like to keep a baby quilt or two in progress because I believe every baby needs their own quilt. So after I learned it was a boy the quilt top featuring fabric with fun bugs, birds and creatures would have a home. This was a great quilt to try out some new quilting stitches as well. I gave each strip in the quilt a different quilting pattern.

I quilt using my home sewing machine and find baby quilts the right size for gathering all the fabric and batting in the throat of the machine. I also featured some of the cute fabric in this quilt by fussy cutting the images. After doing so I realized that these images need to stand out. So I used a few of the 200 and more programed decorative stitches that came with my machine. Different stitches were used to highlight each fussy cut image. When was the last time you used those great stitches? Other than the blanket stitch my machine stitches are certainly underutilized.

I have also posted some closer images of  my quilting and stitches. My challenge to you this week is to think about using the great decorative stitches that your machine has to offer.

Fussy cut bugs in a jar with decorative stitches.

More fussy cut images with decorative stitches.

I was able to try some new quilting patterns.

Fun boy fabric featuring caterpillars and ants.