The First Finish of 2012 (well at least 1/2)

My mom and I worked together on this quilt for my nephew.  It's hard to believe he is almost a year old already.  And with a face like that who wouldn't want to make as many quilts as possible just to get in a little bit of extra snuggle time.

Finishes Max and Whisker's Quilt

It all started last year when Julie released a bunch of patterns designed to be used with the lazy angle rulers.  I knew I wanted to make one or two of these quilts.  I also knew I needed to find a good excuse to make something with the Max and Whiskers line because it was just so cute.  My mom and I went on a mini quilt shop hop last year around the same time and one of the stores we stopped at had the pattern, ruler, a jelly roll, and yardage of Max and Whiskers.  We ended up picking the Fast Forward pattern.

I started things off by sewing together the jelly roll strips and cutting out the blocks.  I did make a huge mistake when cutting the orange grunge fabric.  I left my fabric folded in half thinking I would be smart and cut two pieces at the same time.  Needless to say I ended up having to recut half of those pieces because they were all backwards.  It was completely my fault because after rereading the pattern Julie even mentions not to do this.

Close up of quilting and stars

Once the blocks were together the pieces and I went to visit my mom and at that point we sewed the rows together and laid them out.  It was at this point that we decided to skip the sashing between the rows which is what gave us these more defined stars.  And since we were making the lap size quilt for a small child size wasn't really a factor.  Once the quilt top was together my mom took it to her local long arm quilter who quilted the sweetest little paw prints on the quilt.  She says it was intentional but I love that the stars ended up with a great clear paw print in them.

Back of the quilt

For the back of the quilt my mom used a piece of yardage we picked up for the back and left over pieces from the front of the quilt.  I love that print on the back and I think it is one of my favorite from the entire line.  I loved working on this quilt with my mom and I would recommend Julie's patterns for anyone looking for a fun and quick project.  If speciality rulers aren't your thing she does include a template for the blocks.  But with a whole line of patterns designed for use with the rulers and a ton of other ideas on the internet it really is worth the investment.