I have my third finish of the 2nd quarter (here is a link to my original list ). It’s a quilt for our first grandchild. I was having trouble trying to decide on a design for the quilt so I decided to go with my two favourites and make it a two sided quilt. Are you noticing a theme here. All of the items that I made for our grand baby are two sided. I wanted to give the parents as many options as possible for their nursery. I was asked to make everything gender neutral using any combination of green aqua, navy, yellow and grey.
I saw this quilt idea on Pinterest and thought it would be perfect for a baby quilt. Neither too masculine or feminine. I changed the design a little bit. Instead of each row alternating the twist I made them all start and twist in unison. I like it better this way….softer and less distracting. I made 104 of these little blocks and then trimmed them all. Despite hating all the time it takes to trim the blocks, I do get some satisfaction from looking at the big pile of perfectly sized blocks and the colourful pile of cuttings.
I placed all the blocks on my design wall to help me decide what order to place the colours.
Then came the second quilt top for the back. I made 108 half square triangles using numerous prints and solids in each colour group. Once again I used my trusty design wall to lay out the HSTs and came up with this design. I then added white strips to make the top 5″ bigger on all four sides so I could mount it on my longarm.
I wasn’t able to do any intricate free motion quilting because it would look good on the one side but the design would not match up with the quilt layout on the other side. I went with an all over design called Arrowhead.
I used two layers of batting, Hobbes 80/20 and a high loft polyester. It really gives some life to the free motion quilting.
I really wanted to put a label on the quilt for our grand baby. Unfortunately, because it was two sided, there was nowhere to put it where it wouldn’t stand out and take away from the quilt. I found this great post online where a quilter showed how she stitched words into her bindings to replace the traditional label. It was perfect. I used off white thread so that it would just disappear into the binding but you could still find it if you were looking for it. It says “Made with love 2016 Grandma Debbie”
Linking up to:
Design Wall Monday @Patchwork Times
Linky Tuesday @Freemotion by the River
Fabric Tuesday @Quilt Story
WIP Wednesday @The Needle and Thread Network
Lets Bee Social @Sew Fresh Quilts
Needle and Thread Thursday @My Quilt Infatuation
Finish it Up Friday @Crazy Mom Quilts
TGIFF @A Quarter Inch from the Edge
Can I Get A Whoop Whoop @Confessions of a Fabric Addict
Whomp There it is @A Quilted Passion
Show Off Saturday @Sew Can She
Life In The Dog House 
How wonderful, and congratulations on the new grandbaby. I like both sides of the quilt and couldn’t pick one as the “top” or as the “back.” I’ve used stitching on the binding for a 2-sided quilt, also. It’s a good solution for an atypical problem.
I wonder why you needed to trim all the blocks. Did your pattern give directions to do that? If you cut right-sized, no trimming should be needed.
Great job!
I love the “label on binding idea”. Would you mind sharing the link so I can look it up? I always forget to add a label so this would be a nice alternative. Thank you, jen.neef@web.de
I recently started doing my “label” this exact same way! It has been incredibly successful and received very well. I do have some concerns about how it will wear over time. Do you? Congratulations on your finish! Thanks for participating in the 2016 FAL on behalf of the global hosts 🙂
I never even thought about wear. I guess we will find out since this quilt will likely get a lot of washing.
Very pretty. Love the colors and the quilting is great! Neat idea for the label!
You did a fantastic job! I like the colorway and love that the parents have two choices. Most of all I love your “label”–what a brilliant idea!
I am totally in love with those twists! What a cool design – well done!
OOh that looks so gorgeous. Both sides are equally beautiful. And the label in the binding is a great idea – thanks for telling us about that. Lucky grandchild (and parents).
Beautiful on both sides! The quilting really gives movement to the designs.
I agree with you that the twists look better all going to same way!
I love the idea of the label information stitched into the binding. Beautiful quilt.
What a beautiful quilt, both sides are so nice and the quilting looks amazing!
Lovely! I can’t believe you did two such complicated patterns in one quilt! Thanks for linking up yet again!
Gorgeous quilts! and I love the idea on the binding!