Forest Animal Quilt

Ages ago, my son picked out some fabric for a quilt, and did I actually make the quilt? No. Then, yes. Finally!

Now that he’s not small anymore and well into his teens, I had to ask him if he still wanted a quilt with these fabric designs, but it was still a “yes”! So I got to work.

The fabrics are from a fat quarter bundle featuring the Get Together collection by David Walker for Free Spirit/Westminster Fibers. The solids are Kona solids, but this bundle has been in a bin of fabric for so long, I’m not even sure what they are. My guess: Chocolate, Delft, Earth, Key Lime, Windsor? I got it from Mad about Patchwork. Am I too embarrassed to write them after all this time to find out what they are? Yes, I am.

The design is a series of very large equilateral triangles. I thought this would suit the larger print, and I wanted lots of animals on this quilt. It was super easy to piece. I didn’t use a pattern, or rather, I used my own.

I usually draw out my patterns on graph paper first, and that’s what I did here. Three out of four kids in the family helped me arrange the triangles.

The backing is Trees on Green Background from The Magic of Christmas collection by Lori Whitlock for Riley Blake Designs. I got this from The Quilting Shed. I messed up my quilt math and had to order more fabric. Twice. lol. So a special thanks to Andrea for the patience and speedy delivery.

The backing is pieced and I used some of the scraps from the triangles to make a stripe of tiny squares down the centre. Giant equilateral triangles make lots of scraps.

On the back, there are also two bears. My second child is a teenager and claims to be too old to be tucked in. This way the bears can tuck him in each night. My quilt my rules.

I used a scrappy binding (2.25″ wide). Nothing else matched the colours as well as I wanted. It’s machine sewn.

The straight-line quilting design echoes the triangles, but the pattern also creates little stars if you look very closely.

This is a twin-size quilt. I wanted it to last a long time. Who know when I’ll make another? And yes, it was a beast to sew on my regular (non-quilting) sewing machine.

I love a crinkly quilt, so this is 100% cotton fabric, 100% cotton batting, and 100% cotton quilting thread. (I used Sew-All thread for the piecing though.)

The thread is a medium grey. It was really hard to find something that looked right with this assortment of dark colours. The grey was great with everything (including the backing), except maybe the limey-yellow.

As planned, it all shrunk just a tiny bit in the dryer for this lovely, cozy, crinkly texture.

I was having trouble with my imperfect straight-line quilting. I was worried it wouldn’t look as good as I hoped. But the crinkle fixes all.

Quilt Summary

Pattern: my own.

Fabrics:

• Quilt Top:
  • Prints are from David Walker’s Get Together collection for Free Spirit/Westminster Fibers, including:
    • Flock of Birds in Navy
    • Squirrels and Trees in Blue
    • Squirrels and Nuts in Navy
    • Bears in Line in Blue
  • Solids are Kona solids. I’m not sure of the colours, but perhaps: Chocolate, Delft, Earth, Key Lime, Windsor?
• Backing: Trees on Green Background from The Magic of Christmas collection by Lori Whitlock for Riley Blake Designs.
• Thread: Gütermann Cotton thread #9310. 

Size: 74.5″ x 91.5″ (Twin).