Birds, Bees and Blossoms...Oh My!

 The whole time I was making this adorable little quilt, all I could hear in my head is the old Jewel Akens song The Birds and The Bees.  You know the one.  "Let me tell you bout the birds and the bees and the flowers and the trees."  If it's stuck in your head now too....your welcome.  I know its been forever, but welcome back!  I am still quilting over here.  Slowly, but I am here.  I was contacted about making a special little quilt for a great granddaughter that was on her way.  I immediately remembered seeing this sweet little quilt online.

The great grandma to be, chose this cute little layer cake of Sweet and Plenty by Me and My Sister by Moda Fabrics.  It was the perfect combination of colors and prints to create this little mixed and matched blocks.

The pattern is a freebie on the Quilting Digest web page.  You can download the instructions for each block individually and toward the bottom of the page there is a link for making a pillow or a baby quilt.  As you can see the quilt top was, of course, cat approved, thank you Hobby.

The real fun was in the quilting and adding texture to this adorable top.  I custom quilted each little bird, bee or flower and really only used a handful of designs.  For the birds, bees and flowers, I chose to use an Aurifil light pink thread for the quilting.  It seemed to blend in in all the right places and ever so subtlety stand out where I wanted it too.

 I really wanted all the little critters to be the star of the show, so after outlining around them a quarter inch, I chose a gray colored thread so it blended in.  I chose a simple stipple for my filler.  

After all the filling in was complete, it was time to trim things up and pick a binding fabric.  When I ordered the layer cake, I also bought two possible candidates for binding.  Both fabrics are from the Sweet and Plenty line but one was pink and the other was black.

After much consideration, I opted for the black print.  I just felt like it added a pop, where the pink just kind of blended in.

For the backing I went with a bright pink print.  You can barely see the quilting from the back.  The pink and gray threads melt right into it.

I have to admit, it was hard to let this one go.  I think it turned out so stinking adorable!  But this one is off to little Miss Sophia in FL.

So, a little secret of my own.  This fall I am going to be a G-Ma for the first time.  We are super excited to welcome a sweet bundle of baby girl to our family.  It's time for me to start kicking back and spoiling.  We all know what that means...definitely more quilts!  But for now, I will leave you with a few more pictures of Birds, Bees and Flowers.

And of course, I had to make sure that the quilting was kitty approved.  So, a big thanks to fluffy Ben for inspecting all those stitches and Hobby for making sure all the block stitching were up to par!