I started this quilt back in December but just finished it at the very beginning of this month; since it has now been gifted, I can share! My friend Austin and his husband adopted a beautiful baby girl in November and so, of course, they needed a quilt!
I had all kinds of wild ideas when I originally set about designing this quilt, but in the end I was inspired by the Japanese X-Plus block; I modified the sizing and also made it symmetrical. Out came the graph paper and pencils (and ALL the math), and I created a variation on the block that finishes at 10" square with the corners stones and X being symmetrical to the centre Plus.
I dug through all my fabric bits looking for cheerful prints with nice contrast. Because she's fabulous, and I pretty much love everything she does, the majority of prints are Lizzy House (Cat Nap, Constellations, Pearl Bracelets, etc) with a healthy splash of Heather Ross, Anna Maria Horner, Violet Craft, and a few others. The background fabric is + Your Heart from Katarina Roccella's Wonderland collection. It was a toss up between this and one of the XOXO greys from Cotton + Steel, but I thought this grey would work a little better.
The pieced backing includes a little more Heather Ross as well as an older print from Heather Bailey (from Pop Garden which I think was 2008 or 2009?). The Heather Ross is from the Crafty Chloe collection she did back in 2012 for Hancock; Jeni picked this up for me and I've been waiting for the perfect opportunity to use it and this was definitely it! The binding is another oldie from the Ava Rose collection by Tanya Whelan (2008, I think); I don't generally like to use white bindings, but I really liked the way it was playing off all the colours in the quilt. With the exception of the grey background fabric on the front, everything for this one came from my stash.
I quilted this little guy on the diagonal. Just some simple straight lines, but I think the diagonal adds a little interest without taking away from the fabric choices. Kittens, and hedgehogs, and foxes, oh my!
Kisses x 16 (Modified X-Plus)
For: Maddie
Finished Size: 40x40"
Completed: 01 Feb 2016
