A pieced bunting quilt

This is a tiny quilt, but I am over the moon about it. A third quilt finished in 2010! It's for my new little niece, Alaina. Hi gorgeous! I love your mama and I already love you too.

I have seen lots of lovely bunting quilts, but I always feel a little let down when I realize most of them are appliqued. I certainly am not hating on applique. But for my own aesthetic, I do prefer piecing when possible. So I was interested to see if I could get the lighthearted feel of a bunting without the curved drape. I know there are quilters out there that can figure out how to piece stuff like this on a curve, but I do not have the patience or time for that. Check back in 30 years and maybe I'll be into that.

The triangles for the bunting strips were cut with the Accuquilt GO! Cutter. The layout of the strips looks random and effortless and so I'm sure it'll come as no surprise that I wrestled with it for over a week before landing on this arrangement.

I experimented with an all over continuous line starburst quilting pattern. I wasn't sure it would work but now I can say it was a resounding success! I love how dynamic it is. I went for a super sketchy look, as a bit of a counterbalance to the rigid perfection of the piecing.  I will definitely do this quilting pattern again. It was easy, quick and high impact.

I generally have a hard time choosing quilt backs. This one involved some divine intervention. As I stood in line at the cutting counter I saw a bolt that said "The Cara Collection". My sister's name is Cara. As a young girl she loved anything rainbow. As an adult she hates red. So there could be no fabric more perfect: a sort-of rainbow with no red. I was pretty psyched to get a divine order to buy some fabric. (Usually I feel it's the opposite: uuuuuse your staaaaaaaash)

I love the way the quilting looks on the back. I stared at/petted it for at least half an hour. And hey! I used dots instead of stripes on the binding. These are from the Eric Carle/Very Hungry Caterpillar line. I tried using flannel for the batting and can't say I noticed much of a difference from my usual Warm and Natural except more fluffy lint during quilting.

In general I think baby quilts with lots of white are a terrible idea. But I just couldn't resist the white with those happy bunting flags. Forgive me, sis. I'll send you five bucks for some stain remover. It's tiny, about 36" by 45". At first I worried it would be too small to be useful but then I remembered that's what I thought about this quilt and that got used plenty:

Ah, such a short time ago she was that small. Now she's helping me quilt. Here she is "sewing" the binding.

I'll be back with a photo documentary of constructing this quilt, and then we'll move ahead with that very exciting Accuquilt business.