Quilt number 10 - Rail fence baby quilt

This quilt was done in a bit of a rush...as per normal you could be forgiven for thinking..but I had a lovely new nephew born on boxing day and although I knew he was coming I wouldn't allow myself to start until I had finished off quilt number 9. So I had to pick an easy pattern for quick piecing. I went on the Ipad application Blockfab to find an idea for a simple one and thought I would try the rail fence pattern again, this time without the borders to avoid the mistake I did with quilt number 3.

I am really pleased with the way my fabric stash has built up as I was able to make this quilt from start to finish with only fabrics from my stash, which was handy as I had done enough shopping in the run up to Christmas.  In addition as it was only a cot sized quilt I had some spare wadding left over from a previous project.

I made the strips 2 inches wide and stitched the strips together in 3's before cutting into squares. I followed the simple rule of the safari print in the middle with a pattern on top and a plain on the bottom, apart from one row.

I also added a couple of plain squares so I could personalise it by adding his name in chain stitch (clearly my handwriting and stitching are both appalling as I was frustrated it didn't turn out better).

I tried randomly arranging the squares but in the ended followed a diagonal order to them as it saved any weird matching.

For a change I used the safari pattern fabric which is mini safari by timeless treasures for the backing as well, mainly as I think with hindsight I should have made the strips a bit wider as the pattern was lost somewhat on the front.

I didn't do a small border on this one as I wanted to keep the size smaller so just did the one border. The quilting

was a freehand meander, still not a completely flat back but better than normal. I didn't do it too tight as I wanted the quilt to have some movement as it was only small.

As it is being given to a family with a newborn I did warn them about not using it as a bedcover until their child is 1, quilts are not very breathable.