Lion Baby Quilt and Exploring Arizona

March 24, 2014

Right after we made the move to Phoenix, a good friend of mine asked me to make a quilt for her soon-to-be-born niece. She told me the color scheme and that the baby’s new room would be safari themed. Having seen an extremely cute quilt in the latest Quiltmaker Magazine edition (part of their patch pals collection), I suggested that to her.

Who could resist such a cute pattern? Winner! We made a few changes –

Remove the crown
Lighten up the background forest
Change the blue background to a tan polka dot

Most of the fabrics are Kona solids which I love to work with, and the rest was Riley Blake.

Here’s what I’ve been doing this week…

First, I cut a LOT of little squares. Then it was quick work piecing them all together.

Until I put him all together, stepped back and realized I made a mistake on the mane. Mistakes caught late are the worst!

After a little bonding time with my seam ripper, the little lion man (fondly referred to as Mufasa around the house) was fixed. Phew!

I added the cute little border…

A little pin basting. Small projects are great for using pinmoors in place of safety pins!

Quilting progress! I wanted to do pretty dense quilting since this is a baby quilt and I assume (hope!) that it will be well loved! It certainly needs to be able to withstand lots of washings!

I used a lime green thread in all the green areas and a tan for the rest, meandering around the lion. I added a fun squiggle in the brown border.

And complete! Isn’t he just darling!?

Close up of the polka dots which really added something fun to the front and binding!

Of course, a fun backing is also important – the Riley Blake print worked perfectly to tie in the Safari theme.

I’m sure you’re sick of seeing photos at this point so I promise this is the last quilty one! I just wanted to get a photo of Mufasa out in the beautiful Arizona sunshine!

What else have I been doing in Arizona, you ask?

We also took advantage of the beautiful weather and went on a 9 mile hike this Saturday. I’m still fascinated by all the cacti. Look how tall some of them are!