This challenge is called “Ready, Set, GO! Challenge Baby Quilt”. Sewing for babies is one of the joys of quilters! Whether you are making them for your own children, grandchildren, friends or for charity, there is something amazing about a little one having their very own, one of a kind, beautiful source of love and comfort. This quilt is inspired by all the Wild Babies out there. I always loved “Where the Wild Things Are” and the phrase “Max, you are a wild thing” came to mind many times as I designed it. My son was an energetic child and I love watching energetic children – this is an homage to all those wild ones…who arrive with an unexpected spirit of adventure and enthusiasm for life!
This month is our first industry partner spotlight challenge. AccuQuilt products are amazing and what a time saver because the accuracy is spot on! Island Batik provided the fabric, Accuquilt provided the cutter and dies, Aurifil provided the thread and Hobbs provided the batting. WOW, I am one lucky woman!
We received the 8″ Go Cube and Go Cutter* with our Island Batik goodies in January. I use it whenever I can and will do a little tutorial very soon! In order to design this quilt, I put all the blocks from the book into a file for Electric Quilt 8 and off I was designing. I have noticed I have a few other blocks to add to my collection, – that are on the cards that accompany the dies – that will happen very soon. Our quilts were to be square – CUBElike – to reflect the 8″ cube in all its glory.
Block 1 
Block 2 
Border Blocks
These are the three blocks I used. I loved the pattern it created – both the spinning whirligig and the the diamonds in a diamond. Both building blocks used the same pieces, just in different orientations and coloring. I love when you can create a variety of pattens in that manner.
It was SOOOOOO fast to cut and I love using the cutter. There will be many more die cut quilts in my life! Above you see one set of pieces for Block 2 as they are being constructed.
Here is the quilt as I was assembling it. My only difficulty was occasionally I did not pay attention to the “slant” of the block and so Jack the SeamRipper and I had a good time. This construction was on my recent retreat, and yes, the corner pieces were at home. I finished it quickly upon my return.
The batting I used was the Hobbs Cotton 80/20 in black. It was hard to photograph in the bag, so I put the bag over my ironing board so you could see it! It worked perfectly for this quilt and I love the way it feels. I look forward to washing and seeing the results (soon). I
I quilted by doing a concentric diamond inside the diamonds. I then stippled in the black – using my Aurifil black.
I quilted “beads” to join the squares in the yellow border and outlined the tiger fabric in the outer border. It was a great way to quilt the quilt and did a lot of what I wanted – made the black push back a little and emphasize the other design elements of the quilt.
Binding was cut on the Accuquilt 2 1/2″ die, attached to the front and hand sewn to the back. The thing about that die is that you can cut 9 strips in the blink of an eye. I hadn’t hand sewn one in a while and it took an evening of silly TV in bed to do it and I was pleased. It felt good to be hand sewing again.
This completes my Island Batik challenge for April and was also one of my quarterly goals! Hip Hip Hooray
Wild Baby Statistics:
- 40″ x 40″
- Island Batik fabrics (wild things zebra acorn, blond ale and black)
- Aurifil 50 wt in white #2204, black #2692 , yellow #2110
- Hobbs 80/20 Cotton Batting in Black
- Dies used: #4 (qst), #5 (hst) and #7 (45 degree parallelogram) and 2 1/2 strip die
Up next for me:
1. Sew my Island Batik May Project
2. Binding on Hidden Stars comfort quilt
3. Quilt Baby Charm comfort quilt
4. Design work/pattern writing FOR REAL!!
5. Prepare foundations for a quilt for church
Linking up to:
Wednesday Wait Loss
Can I Get A Whoop Whoop?
Friday Foto Fun
Finished or not Friday
UFO Busting
What I made Monday
2 Quarter FAL 2019
Favorite Finish Monthly Linkup
I’ve known a few wild childs and you just have to love them 🙂 I love the fun and excitement contained in the fabrics and pattern of this quilt! The dye cutters sure do make life much more simpler. Congrats on your challenge finish!
Thanks, Tish. It was a fun one to do…blogging held me up on this one. Kept wanting an outside picture, which may happen today. Finally, there is sun here in New England. The cutters are a dream, and I love the accuracy.
Hi Kathleen! What a great quilt! I love all of your fabric choices, and that Go cutter system sounds like a fabulous thing. Yay for finishing your April challenge (you said it was your May challenge towards the end of your post). And BLACK batting! How cool is that?! ~smile~ Roseanne
Ooops..and fixed. I can’t believe how much I love that cutter. Strips and HST/QST make it all worth while. I do have another brand, and having makes it work so well. Funny sometimes one die is more efficient than the other – for instance d- I can cut HST and QST from less fabric with the Sizzix – which is a help when I use the Island Batik fabrics. I do trim to make sure the size is right, so its seems like I am cutting but the thing you don’t worry about is the precision!
Boy, those die cutters definitely help get a project completed! Love the quilt and the wild thing story. Can’t wait to see what new dies you decide to add to your collection!
Thanks, Wendy. Not sure what they will be but one day. I figure right now the HQ purchase was enough!
Oh your wild child quilt worked out perfectly!
I rather love it and it makes me smile to think of the wild ones!
Your Wild Baby quilt is amazing, Kathleen! I can see how the cutting would be faster with the Go Cutter.
You would be amazed Nancy. I always pull it out to cut my strips now!
Turned out wonderfully the fabrics you put together really make this quilt pop!
Thank you! My first design was a bit softer but this the fabric I had so it works in pale spring colors too!
Where the Wild Things Are is such an excellent source of inspiration for the quilt, Kathleen. Retreat sewing is tough because there is so much going on; I would no doubt have needed to use my seam ripper assembling something as well. I look forward to hearing more about how the batting washes up, it sure doesn’t beard or show on the lovely blacks in the quilt top here!
You are so right about retreat sewing. There was a point where I laid it out and picked up a whole stack and still pieced it wrong. I am dying to put it in the wash, but it needs an outside shot or two – weather is cooperating today but son is using the laundry…tomorrow perhaps.
Great baby quilt on the wild side!
Thanks, Anita.
Let the wild rumpus start! This looks great!!!
Indeed, the wild rumpus another favorite phrase from that book!
Love the name of the quilt, and the names/colors of the fabrics! It will be perfect for a Max kind of baby. I am just still amazed that the ambassadors got the Cube and Cutter to use this year. Genius marketing, because it’s really neat to see all the quilts made with them. I feel like me with my rotary cutter is just like me with my scissors years ago—behind the times for sure. The last photo of the wild quilt in the wild makes me smile.
Gorgeous work Kathleen, very beautiful baby quilt!
Thanks, Fi. It was a really fun quilt to make
I had to read the post twice to see if you mentioned the recipient of this adorable baby quilt and didn’t see one so I’m thinking you’re saving it for someday/oneday. I guess if I keep hanging with my blog buddies whom a lot of them are IB Ambassadors I might start once again buying batiks since that’s some I don’t have a whole lot of–would you believe a small bin. Die-cutting is fun isn’t it. One day, I want to spend the whole day just die-cutting and just have some projects ready which comes in handy which I’ve learned for the unexpected. Good color choices, were they a group of fabric that came together or did you put it together?
No recipient yet….I keep planning to get out and do a few trunk shows with the IB stuff so I hold on. No stash of batiks to speak of???? shocking! I will have to remedy that one day! I really want to slash through my scraps but haven’t gotten there yet. Sorry to be late responding, got lost in the travel day!
Love this quilt! Your choice of fabrics was perfect and the willing complements the design so well! Thanks for sharing on Wednesday Wait Loss.
You are so welcome, Jennifer. I love this fun quilt and wish there was a wild baby to roam on it (visiting one!).
OUTSTANDING. I love everything about this quilt, and I hope you find the perfect wild baby to borrow at some point to try it out! Thanks for linking up to What I Made Monday