Pokey the Playmat - version 2.

This year I have a few quilting goals, which is another list of quilts that I would like to make for certain friends and babies arriving this year. I can sense my pile of UFOs will have to stay put for a bit longer...oh well!

So to start the year of 2016 I made another Pokey the Playmat quilt. The pattern is from the book Dare to Be Square by Boo Davis. The first time I made it was back in 2012 for a baby girl in it's original size 36" by 36". 

However this time I added an additional 6" border to make it into a larger quilt. My challenge is to keep the colour gender neutral, as we do not know the sex of the baby.   

This is always a fun quilt to make, especially in the early stages of pulling out fabric stash and audition different solids and print fabrics. Although simple in design, there are rooms to make changes and makes it a one of a kind quilt. As mentioned before in the second version I have added another border to its original design, plus I also free motion quilting the negative background. 

  

Other quilters who have made this quilt also have different ways to create Pokey's face. Here I have hand stitched it in orange perle cotton threads for the eye and smiles but I think raw edge applique will also work here. 

The backing of the quilt is another challenge that I enjoy a lot and I hope I have done this quilt justice. I do prefer the front and the back of my quilt work cohesively in terms of its theme, colour schemes and shape. For this quilt I have chosen green floral and brown leafy prints. I alsouse brown solid to differentiate the two prints while echoing the log cabin design of the snail.

The inspiration for my free motion quilting came from Christina Cameli's leafy lines quilting design. I have loosely spaced each leafy line and quilted each leaf at random intervals. I think it's fitting for this quilt as it reminds me of the snails climbing up a leaf.

It is a beautiful design and easy to do even for beginners. I highly recommend you to click the link above to take a look Christina's original design.

Last step is to give this quilt a good wash before I wrap it up and ready for gifting. I do prefer to wash my quilt before giving it away, especially baby quilts, so they are ready-to-use when they reach their final destination.  

Thank you for visiting!
Erica.