Liam's quilt

The one handmade gift I gave this year was a quilt for my newest nephew, Liam.  I used Denyse Schmidt's Proverbial Quilt for the letters and the instructions for her Sleep quilt pattern in the International Quilt Fest: Quilt Scene magazine.  I wanted a subtle palette of blues and grays for the letters with a mix of pattern - I used mostly scraps.  The back is Four Square in New Day from Denyse's Hope Valley line and the binding is a gray solid I had in my stash, probably a Kona cotton if I had to guess.  Because the letters in the pattern do not have seam allowances, I traced them onto freezer paper and ironed that to my fabrics.  With the quilting ruler as my guide, it was very easy and fast to add the seam allowances at the same time I cut out the letters.  I will definitely take this approach when I make it again, especially with a limited number of letters to cut.

I used off-white thread to quilt it.  I didn't mark any lines - just started sewing straight-ish lines at random intervals being careful not to cross them.  I wanted a grid-like look without uniformity if that makes sense.  I'm really happy with how it all came together and will definitely be making this simplified version of the proverbial quilt again.

If you haven't seen Melissa's quilt from this pattern, go look now.  Awesome.  So so very awesome.