I knew I wanted to make a handmade item that I could give to the baby, but I had never tackled a quilt before. Cutting and sewing in straight lines and squares is not exactly my style. You see, I tend not to do any thing that requires precision or following rules and patterns exactly as I am told. And I had always assumed that a quilt would turn out to a be hot mess if I didn’t have all my shapes and all my squares exactly the same size. Well it turns out a quilt can be whatever the heck you want it to be. I am pretty sure that no two of my squares are exactly the same but I think thats ok. Because in the end, Liam has a sweet little quilt that he can one day tell all his friends “oh yeah my mom made that” and they will reply “say what??? Your mom is awesome!” And he will be all like, “yeah I know. Which is why I am never growing up so I can be with her forever.” (At least I think that’s how it will all play out.)
The fabric I used for this quilt all comes from the Hello Bear Collection by Bonnie Christine for Art Gallery Fabrics. I have had my eye on this fabric and before I was even pregnant I bought half a yard in 5 different prints, knowing that it would most likely sell out. This collection became so popular that Art Gallery now has released the Buck Forest print (the deer head) in eight different colors and also in knit and canvas. Locals, you can pick this fabric up from Five Eighth Seams in West Ashley. 
I had to do some creative fussy cutting so that I could include all the different mommy and baby animal pairs. In the end some pieces didn’t make the cut (ha, get it!) but I was able to come up with a variety of different rectangle and square pieces that I then appliquéd on top of another larger square piece. Here are a few online tutorials here and here that I followed to help me get an idea of where to start. And if you do like to do things precisely and accurately, there are tons of other tutorials online that give much better instructions than I do!
Also check out this youtube video from Made Everyday to learn how to make your own bias tape and get you started on doing the bias binding. This next photo you might be able to see how I used a decorative top stitch to stitch my bias binding in place. l have never used the decorative stitches on my machine before so this was fun to do. 
This photo means the world to me, not only because he is on his mommy quilt but because this was the first purposeful smile we ever caught on camera. Liam is one month old today and as much as I love watching him grow, it kills me at the same time to know that time is moving by so fast! Enjoy your week and if you are lucky enough to be around any sweet babies this week, take the time to just sit and stare. All your other problems will just disappear, I promise!
xxoo Priscilla
