Simeon's quilt

We recieved an e-mail to tell us about the arrival of our friends' little boy and I knew I wanted to make him a quilt. I've made quite a few cot quilts over the past couple of years and they normally take me a few months but this time I wanted to set myself a more realistic goal. However I also try to learn something new with each quilt I make and so I was very pleased to have achieved both goals with this quilt. I bought some lovely Buttercup Farm fabric (inspired by my own little boy's current love of everything to do with farm animals) and set out a simple quilt pattern with some strip-pieced squares. I even found some chicken fabric hiding in my stash!

My new technique for this quilt was free motion quilting. My mum bought me a Big Foot sewing machine foot a while ago and I've been nervous of trying it. This month there was a great tutorial in Quilting Arts which gave me the courage to have a go. I love it!! There will be lots more free motion sewing from me this year, especially since Kirstie Allsopp referred to it as "the crack cocaine of the crafting world" after she had a go on "Kirstie's Homemade Home". Here's my first attempt, on the white border in the quilt.

I started this quilt on Saturday afternoon and finished it on Tuesday evening.