Baby Bella

The family is eagerly anticipating the arrival of little baby Isabella Elizabeth. My sister-in-law is seriously the cutest little pregnant lady you have ever seen.

I was fortunate enough to receive a copy of the Zig Zag Frenzy quilt from Lella Boutique which you can order here. I knew I wanted to make it but wasn't sure for what occasion. I originally planned on a rail fence quilt like the one shown at You Seriously Made That!? for baby Bella- her room is decorated in the same colors. I was planning on adjusting the design in such a way that when the blocks were sewn together, the whites/pinks/oranges would be sort of background colors to a bolder green. They would be arranged so that the green rails would form capital I's throughout the quilt...for Isabella.

Arranging tons of HST's

But the Zig Zag Frenzy won out.

The initial part of making all the half square triangles wasn't so bad. It's when I realized how many of them there were that I began to sigh loudly over my decision. Fortunately, the ironing went pretty quickly and I got the blocks arranged nicely.

Once I got started, stitching all those blocks together into rows didn't take much time at all. Each time a row was finished, I sewed it to the previous rows until 5 of them were together. Then I started the bottom half of the quilt by sewing the other 5 rows, finally attaching everything in the middle.

I did mess up on the last row and got my blocks flipped when I went to stitch the first few together. It never fails. I always mess up and need to rip out a few seams.

Blocks becoming rows

Rows being attached to other rows

I'm quite happy with the way the quilt is progressing. The top is finished; however, I'm out of batting so I need to get some of that so I can quilt the layers together. I haven't decided what I'll do. I think I may attempt free motion quilting of some spirals through the white zig zags and leave the pink ones plain. Or maybe I'll outline the pink ones.

Finished quilt top

L to R: binding fabric, backing, quilt top

The original pattern calls for borders around the edges but I think I like the look of the zig zags running right into the binding. The back of the quilt will be the tiny pink polka dot fabric used in the zig zags. I also got a bright green fabric for the binding that mimics the polka dots of the white background except there are a bunch of cute little flowers.

I just hope she likes it!