Baby shower goodness

How fun it is to find just the right pattern when needing to make a gift. A few years ago Julianna, of Sewing Under Rainbow, shared a paper pieced tutorial for the Not So Spring Deer. This deer, to me, looks like a young buck, and therefore perfect to honor the upcoming arrival of a certain little mister :o)

The "Not So Spring Deer" paper pieced pattern as a wall hanging

This little man's mama is creating a woodland setting in baby's nursery and using neutral colors with a touch of blue. The geometric print from Kate Spain's Good Fortune line seemed the perfect print for paper piecing as the densely printed pattern blurs well where the paper pieces come together. Looking through my stash I found a nice variety of medium dark gray fabrics to round out the project.

30 degree diamond quilting

I wanted the solid gray background fabric to have a dense quilting that did not extend into the borders. To accomplish this I layered the deer panel onto the batting; then used a ruler to mark 30 degree diamonds, and the edge of the walking foot to quilt the lines approx. 1/2 inch apart. Each time I came to the deer I cut the thread, knotted it, and wove it in. After the quilting was finished I stitched the borders onto the batting.

30 degree diamond quilting

The dense quilting does a nice job of making the deer stand out from the background. A thin blue 1/4 " border adds a nice frame, and then some fun polka dots to enhance the young look of the buck.

Perle cotton buttonhole stitch

Somewhere I remembered seeing buttonhole stitch used to sew down binding. I thought this would add a nice hand-stitched look as well as a texture, and I just happened to have the perfect gray perle cotton on hand! I love how it looks, but was surprised at how hard it is to do buttonhole stitch through cotton; definitely hard on the hands. I don't think I could do this on a larger quilt.

Envelope style back

I found two more prints in my stash which are just the right shade of gray to finish out the mini quilt. For the back I opted to go with an envelope closure; this allows the mini to be used either as a wall hanging, or a pillow. Using fun prints makes the back just as show-worthy as the front :o) Projects like this are so much fun! I love finding just the right fabrics and considering each little detail.

Not So Spring Deer as a pillow

 I'm praying for the safe arrival of this sweet little boy, and blessings for his mama and daddy as they experience the joys of their first baby.