Little Alannah, daughter of our friends Colm and Adele, has her first birthday party in a couple of weeks. I decided to make her a baby blanket. Colm and Adele have a nice, quirky sense of humor so I thought they would like something whimsical but not super girly. I like homemade gifts, and I wanted to try something more challenging. I’ve never finished a blanket before. I love all these spring birthdays, they’re giving me a lot of great practice!

I made the “Super Quick + Easy Baby Quilt” from Last-Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts by Joelle Hoverson (owner of Purl and Purl Patchwork). It was easy and came out beautifully. I won’t go into the details here, you should buy the book! But here are some pictures of my project. Mine ended up about 31″ x 39″ (I did a lot of squaring up and it kept getting smaller). Next I’ll try making one for my one-year-old niece.

Here’s the blanket all sewn together but before I stitched it for the tie quilt look. I used a yellow polka dot fabric for the back and the hysterical Goldfish in Bags print from the Heather Ross Lightning Bugs and Other Mysteries collection from Free Spirit for the front.

The finished project.

Up close and personal.