Baby quilt

This is the quilt that has kept me busy for the last few days.

At my son's work they organised to collect fabrics to make a quilt for one of their colleagues who is expecting her first baby.
Not only were there fabrics from work colleagues, but family from overseas contributed pieces to add to the quilt too! :)
With less than 2 weeks before the baby shower I was asked if I would like to put together the quilt.

How could I say no!!

As well as fat quarters and larger and smaller pieces of fabric there are embroidered fabrics, fabric painting and beautifully stitched cross stitch patches, all given in friendship and love.  Some people spent a lot of time creating their contribution. Several squares had signatures and messages added later with a waterproof pen.

I decided to make simple squares since they would be fast to put together. Looking at all the fabrics I had, I decided on a size and started cutting. The smaller pieces where mounted onto a larger piece or had a border added.

With 5 days to go more contributions arrived from overseas, so I added an extra row to the quilt.
The last row has signed handprints from family. I hand appliqued each of the hand shapes.

I chose a light cream fabric with  spots and stars for the backing and a colourful spot for the binding. ( The gender of the baby is not known yet)

The most nerve wracking part for me was the basting! (I usually have huge problems with basting my quilts!!) I didn't want to end up with wrinkles and pleats on the back! I used Sharon Schamber's basting method with two boards and I am very happy to say it was successful first go!!

I finished the last stitch in the binding on Friday afternoon. Woohoo....done on time!

When the quilt was collected on Saturday I was presented with a beautiful bunch of flowers! :)  (you all know how much I love flowers!)

Saturday afternoon was the surprise baby shower. The Mother-to-be, pictured above with her DH, got a wonderful surprise when she saw everyone!

Seeing the photographs of the reactions of the Mother and Father-to-be and everyone looking closely at all the blocks was heart warming. It was a wonderful and humbling experience to be able to put together individual contributions from work colleagues, friends and family from here in Australia and England, and create a quilt for a family to welcome their new baby.