An Experiment with....Traditional Quilt Patterns

If you've seen the other quilts I've made, you can tell that I often go for more modern looks and less traditional fabrics. I made this baby quilt over the summer, as a challenge to myself: how can I use the navy fabric and the brown fabric and how can I draw upon the more traditional quilt designs with which this type of fabric is often associated? I'm pretty pleased with the result:

As I haven't actually mailed this one yet, I'm keeping mum about the recipient. Let's just say that it's going to a child whose parents are are quite thoughtful about bending tradition in certain ways and, in that regard, it's amusing to me that this quilt is a fairly traditional one.


The design uses two main blocks: a three-stripe block typical of rail-fence patterns and a classic 9-patch block. My favorite part of the quilt may be the blue and brown border, made from the scraps of the strip-pieced 9-square blocks. (The father will like this no-waste approach to material.) I used flannel as the batting layer and backed the quilt with a deep red/maroon and cream fabric that meshed well with the brown and cream binding. The red fabric was the perfect size -- literally, I only trimmed the edges to match it up, less than a 1/2 inch from any given side. I quilted very simply on the diagonals, creating a diagonal grid pattern.