Rebecca's Cot Quilt

 
After a bit of a rush, I have just finished this cot quilt for Sarah's new baby.

Sarah is my very hard working (and now very missed!) colleague, who went on her maternity leave about a month ago. Her baby wasn't due until mid October, but little Rebecca couldn't wait to start her life and was 3 weeks early! So this meant I was quite behind with her cot quilt. But now, at last, it is finished.

I designed it to match this cot quilt I made for Rebecca's big brother Henry (who is 2 and a half). The elephant and giraffe applique in the centres are based on paintings that Sarah had for Henry's nursery.
When I started to think about what to do for Sarah's second baby I decided to try to match the first one but with different animals.

To start with I tried to design some animals in the same style. I managed a zebra quite well but couldn't manage to get any other 'jungle animals' to work. Because of the strong graphic design, only animals with a long snout worked (not, for instance, a lion). In the end I researched the original artist, who is called Erica J Vess, to see what else she had done in the same style and came across a collection of stick-legged farm animals. After a consultation with Sarah, we decided on the cow and the horse.

 

I used a combination of reverse and traditional needle-turn applique to make the 3 cows and 3 horses. Then I trimmed them to the middle block size and strip pieced a log cabin around them.

I did the black outline with a back stitch in embroidery silk and then hand quilted it (not very heavily as I was already behind). I got to meet tiny Rebecca on Wednesday (she is beautiful), and Henry helped me take the quilt up to his bedroom to measure it against his. I had been worried I had made the strips a different width this time, but no, it was exactly the same.

For both cot quilts I have not known what gender the babies were when I was making them, so they had to be quite neutral (as it happened this time, if I had waited another few days before I pieced the top I would have known Rebecca was a girl!). In the end I think Henry's is more 'girly' than Rebecca's, but they do look good together, and mummy was very happy with the result!