A finish! Well, almost a finish. The label still has to be added, but other than that Baby X’s and O’s is a finish. I made it some time ago with the Inklingo 7.5″ Spool or Japanese X collection.

Now hold on to your hats! Baby X’s and O’s was, with the exception of one block, totally pieced by machine. I hand pieced one block, realized how much quicker it would be to make those blocks by machine so I headed for the sewing machine and had the little quilt done in no time. If you’ve read my blog for any length of time you know I don’t machine piece very often at all. But this one I did. And thanks to the Inklingo matching points and stitching lines, I had no issues machine piecing it at all.

The quilt top had been sitting in my stack of quilt tops for quite some time. Very good friends told us they were about to become grandparents for the first time. Upon hearing the news, I immediately wanted to make a baby quilt. I was coming up blank when trying to think of a design idea. Then I remembered the little Japanese X top and out it came. I had it basted and machine quilted in no time. The finished size of the quilt is 28.5″ x 35.5″.

I had decided to emphasize the X element of the design in my fabric choices and carried that over into the quilting of it which I think you can see best from the back of the little quilt.

Once it was quilted, I decided it needed something else. So I quickly printed out five of the 3.125″ circles from the Inklingo Bigger Circles collection and appliquéd them on to the finished quilt. The placement of the circles was again to emphasize the X element of the design. And then, when I saw the finished little quilt, it made the name Baby X’s and O’s irresistible. Of course a teddy bear has to be part of any photo shoot of a baby quilt.

I knew I had the right fabric in my stash for the backing and I did. The mauve is almost a perfect match to the front.

Of course I pieced a label for it. The 2″ hexagon is my go-to shape for some quilt labels. I printed a few of the half hexagons to frame the centre hexagon, using the same fabric as the circles on front and the binding. Now it waits for the baby to be born so that I can write his or her name on to the label along with the quilt name, etc. and get that label appliquéd on. So I can do that quickly, I’ve basted down the turn-under allowance.

“Baby Quilt Alien & Kitty Style”

Jake was exhausted from playing with toys and having big kitty chases with Baxter.

All I can see in this shot of Baxter is that enormous paw.