Finally Quilting Again. My First Triangles

I won some Brrr Fabric over a year ago and I've been saving it for the right occasion. This is it. My nephew Josh, his wife Noelene and their son Robert, are expecting an addition to the family in August. They live in Yellowknife and since the Kerr family farm is near White Bear, I thought these polar bears were perfect for a baby quilt for them. The top is done. Sandwiching and machine quilting are next. I have some baby corduroy with an aviation theme for the back (both Josh and Noelene are pilots). I think it's soft enough. Kevin's not convinced. I'm going to try it anyway. I don't know of anyone who has backed a quilt with corduroy. Maybe there's a good reason for that. *shrug*.

For the sake of full disclosure, I completely stole this quilt idea from Jolene who blogs at Blue Elephant Stitches. I have long admired this quilt that she made with this very same fabric. While not identical, the similarities are more than striking.

I know that's a lot of white for a baby quilt but that's their problem. Ha!

What I learned about triangles so far:

• I like cutting them out.
• I used spray starch to secure those bias edges a bit. I was a bit stingy with the starch but it was okay.
• I'm glad I chose not to match triangle points. That would have made this a much more challenging quilt to make.
• I learned the importance of keeping the grain in the right direction with 60 degree triangle pieces. It's easy to get them turned around and off-grain. I eventually developed a system.
• I like pressing seams open. It makes more sense to me. This was my first time NOT pressing seams open (based on instructions) and while it's a quick and easy way to go initially, I found it hard to keep it sorted as to whether to press them right or left depending on which row I was doing. And even then, I would end up having to feed them backwards through the machine sometimes, increasing the risk of the seams getting accidentally turned back. Argh!

It feels good to be sewing again. I had to take vacation just to get back at it. I'm several "quilt guild challenges" behind but I hope to catch up this summer and I have so many more baby quilts to get made, mostly for babies that are already born! Nevermind the "grown up quilts" I still have planned. Hannah's quilt will be the next adult quilt and I want to get started on it this summer.