Friday Finish - Cordelia's Baby Quilt

I'm excited to share with you the baby quilt that I made for my soon to be born niece Cordelia! I was over the moon excited when I found out that my brother and sister-in-law were going to have a baby girl. I love my boy and I love being a boy mom, but the excuse to buy more pink flowery fabrics was awesome!
The pattern I used is the Patchwork Dreams quilt from Elizabeth Dackson's book Becoming a Confident Quilter, but I changed it up a bit. Her original pattern has thick sashing strips between the rows of blocks and I decided to omit those so that the quilt ended up measuring 40" x 54". The perfect size for a crib, but still big enough that little Cordelia won't out grow it too fast. 

I wanted this quilt to have lots of softness, so I did a double layer of 100% cotton batting and did minimal straight line quilting. I used various colors of Aurifil 50wt & 40 wt thread (1100, 4182, 2530, 5003, 2830, & 2435) I echoed the very center horizontal and vertical seams first, then I echoed the seams of each of the large squares with a coordinating color. I kept my bobbin thread Aurifil 50wt #2309 so that it would blend with the backing fabric. 

I originally purchased this fabric to be made into a crib sheet to coordinate with the quilt, but my mom suggested to use it as the backing. I was a bit skeptical because I originally wanted to use the pink that I bound the quilt with for the backing. But I am soooo glad I used this for the backing, the lightness is a good contrast to how bold the front is! Have you ever felt blah about a fabric, and then loved it after using it? 

This is the first time that I have tried printing on fabric for the label, and I have to say I love how easy it was. I was very nerveous about how it would hold up in the wash, but it survived and didn't appear to fade at all. (note: picture was taken before washing) I also included one of my Young Texan Mama tags that I put on all my finished quilts from my shop. They have washing directions on the reverse side.

This is my first finish for the 2016 Finish Along, next on my list are some matching crib sheets, and a crib skirt to go with this quilt. Then I need to get this shipped off to Pennsylvania because I know my sister-in-law is anxious to get everything!