Finally!!!!

...a fun (and flannel-y) finish! I am quite the good project starter, but oh so painfully slow at finishing anything. That said, I am totally geeked about this contribution to the fabrisphere because it's for a very special new mommy and daddy. One of my dearest friends, Brooke, and her husband, Si, have been in the process of becoming foster parents. They were officially licensed on New Year's Day and just a few weeks ago welcomed a "permanent placement" into their home: a 15-month old boy named Nathaniel.

They are beginning the adoption process and hopefully by the end of this summer Nate will be theirs forever and ever! I got to meet their little man this past Friday and I completely agree with his momma ---- love at first sight! I can't post pictures of Nate, but I can show you his quilt:

Because I ended up meeting him sooner than I expected, I wasn't able to do the full-fledged quilt I had in mind (maybe for his birthday??), but I'm pleased as punch with this cozy flannel strip quilt with super soft ragged edges. It matches the nursery theme (by accident) and I found the cutest snuggly yellow lion to go with it.

For the quilt, I cut two 3" and 6" by the WOF strips from 6 half-yard cuts (flannel is funny -- my widths were all over the place and some had pretty 'deep' selvages, too). Each strip is three layers thick --- matching flannel for the front and back plus a solid for the 'batting' aspect. I quilted the layers together with a single center line stitch (you could do decorative here, I opted for straight) then joined the strips with a half-inch seam, making sure to keep all the seams on one side of the quilt. I snipped the seams width-wise at 1/8" and then sewed the perimeter with a 1/2" seam allowance and snipped those edges, too. No binding made a for a super fast finish! The whole thing went through two laundry cycles and frayed beautifully! It's a really warm blanket which is good for us northerly Mid-westerners.  {grin}

Welcome home, Nate!

p.s. I'm guessing by now that you figured out this quilt doesn't measure 60" ---- doh! It's more like 54" long, which is still a nice length when you're from the toddler set.  {wink}