Bento Bikes Baby Quilt

Good friends of ours are having a baby at any moment, and I had been holding on to this fabric to make them a baby quilt for a while, and got it done just in time.  Now that they have recieved the quilt I can share it with you!

Here's a photo of the whole quilt, post washing.  They are both avid bicyclists, so when the Avalon fabric line from Birch fabrics came out, I knew it would be perfect for them!  I used a number of fabrics from the line and then supplemented with other grey, green, and teal fabrics from my stash.

To make this bento box design, I made nine log cabin/square within square blocks and then cut them into quarters.  Each of the larger blocks was 13.5" square before I cut them up, which was kind of a pain of a size to make, but was the right size to get the final quilt size I wanted (since I had a yard and 1/4 of backing fabric - so my final quilt was something like 39" square).   I used different size center squares to start and different width strips, so that the blocks would each be different.  I tried to keep in mind how the blocks would look when cut into quarters as I pieced them, so that each quarter would look good on its own.  I almost chickened out and left them as whole squares, but I went ahead and cut them up.

I also considered this layout which I like too, but I ended up deciding that I liked a regular bento box layout better.

I couldn't find the little quilting table extension thing for my machine when I went to free-motion quilt this, so the quilting was a bit frustrating (and far from perfect) but it all looked fine after a good wash and dry.  And the soon to be parents loved it, which is the most important thing!

I'll be linking up to Sew Modern Monday on Canoe Ridge Creations - click over to check out other modern sewing finishes!