Lightning Bolt Baby Quilt

My sister's friend, Mary U., made this gorgeous baby quilt for my sister's second baby due in February.  I love the bright yellow and gold colors on the the gray and blue background.  There is no doubt that this quilt will be treasured by my sister and my future niece.  One thing that worried my sister though, was the amount of quilting holding the layers together.  She thought it might come apart or bunch up in some areas after multiple rounds through the washing machine.  My sister asked if I could add a bit more quilting to ensure that neither of those things occurred.  I was happy for a relatively quick project and started thinking about which machine I wanted use.

The bright colors in this quilt are fantastic

The lightening bolts are outlined in quilting

The blue border has widely spaced triangles

A view of the back

For quilting ideas I consulted mom.  She came up with some good suggestions.  First, I filled in the background between the lightening bolts with free form squiggly lines.  I started this project on my Bernina 730 Record and for quite a while progress was steady.  Eventually, the motor started to run more and more slowly and after I finished the squiggly lines it stopped altogether.  I took apart the motor and cleaned it, but when I put it back in the machine I noticed worn belts that needed to be replaced.  I too a break to order new upper and lower belts online and then moved on to keep quilting with my Necchi Nora. This was the first project I had done on this machine and it worked great.

Squiggly lines in place

Now the lightening bolts pop even more

On to phase two of quilting

Next, I worked on the blue background.  Each triangle got divided into thirds and I used the Necchi for this.

Triangles through polka dots

The Nora excelled at her first quilting project

Stewie helped ensure that quilting was evenly spaced

The final round of quilting was on the lightening bolts themselves.  Each section of the bolt got divided into thirds similar to the triangles on the border.  Every six inches or so I had to make a ninety degree turn, but as long as my needle was in the fabric when I lifted the pressure foot I was able to start sewing in the new direction without any problems.  I was worried about having enough space under the sewing machine arm for the quilt, but I soon found that there was plenty of room for a baby quilt.

Quilting lightening bolts and view of the fantastic binding in polka dots

Nora's color compliments this quilt

Finished quilt before washing

The quilt got washed in cold water to remove the chalk quilting lines and it came out of the machine looking fantastic.  It held together well and it's ready to snuggle with baby. This was a fun project because there were some many great fabrics in the quilt top and Mary chose such a pattern I have never seen before. Every time I looked at the quilt I noticed different fabrics, one even had whimsical orange octopuses. I was glad to see that Mary signed the back of her finished quilt. Artists should get credit for their design and skill in construction. Now, the finished quilt has made the trip back to MN and is waiting with the rest of us to meet my new niece.

Lovely!