Two baby quilts

I enjoy making baby quilts, both because of the pleasure of giving something special to new parents and because of the satisfaction of working on something small--a lot easier to finish! It's also a way for me to practice machine quilting. A quilt this size (about 36x36) is a lot easier to handle on my sewing machine than something larger. But even with something this small, doing an overall design as I did on this quilt does not hold my interest. Having recently completed "Big Dots," where the quilting was varied from circle to circle, and then with something different in the background, I can see that doing variation is much more engaging. But on this quilt, I wanted to soften the linearity of the rectangles, so I went with an overall design. Here's a close-up of the quilting (click on photo to see it larger):

The quilt was made from the "Circus" pattern from Blue Underground. See all their great patterns here.

I can only machine quilt for about 30 minutes at a time, so I set up a small piecing project to do in between quilting sections. I'm thinking this will be for another baby due later in the year.

This was a pleasure to make. I had a lot of solid scraps, added in some strips from yardage, and then just put two strips together. Then those two with another two, and either a 5th or 6th strip to finish. Something very satisfying in this very simple color work.