A Crafty Christmas: Bunting for Baby

I have the cutest nieces and nephews in the world.  This is a fact. My newest niece is all of five months old, and since she was born in the chaos of summer, I didn't get a chance to present her with a baby blanket when she first entered the world.  With Christmas coming, I decided to remedy that situation.  Baby H would have her very own blanket. 

Deciding on the style was incredibly easy.  I fell head over heels in love with this blanket from the moment I saw it, thanked my lucky stars that I had a baby (not of my own) to make it for, and filed it under "Hell yes."

I mean, just look at it:

Via A Pretty Cool Life

I loved this design for a few reasons.  First, it's a quilt that's not a quilt.  The bunting flags are sewn on top of one big piece of fabric, therefore, there's no piecing to do.  Second, it is so festive and fun.  And finally, it's what those of us who are fabric hoarders like to call a "stash buster."  I am addicted to fat quarters and have so many lying around that all I had to do was decide which ones to use, cut the flags and go.

First I cut my flags (mine were five inches instead of four since the blanket I made was larger than the tutorial's instructions). That was the easy part.  After that I spent about an hour and a half deciding on the proper order of the flags, and I changed my mind right up until they were sewn on there.

I added batting and the back piece, and quilted everything together by following the top line of the bunting rows.



I thought the blanket needed a little bit more personalization.  With an older brother and sister, Baby H is going to have to share a lot of stuff; I wanted her to know this was made just for her.  I embroidered her first (blurred to protect her Internet reputation for posterity) and middle names and a little flower motif that reminded me of a willow tree, and attached it to the back of the quilt.

I found this great quilt binding tutorial from the Old Red Barn Co., and followed it to make my edges.  Having never done a binding like this before, I needed some great instructions, and these are fantastic!

Finally, after spending about four hours hand sewing the binding on the back of the quilt, it was done!  Here's the end result:

The original tutorial uses white thread to sew everything together, but I chose a vibrant green to add pizazz.  I love how this blanket came out--like a daily party in the nursery--and I hope that Mama and Baby H liked it too!