Overdue baby quilt #1, done!

Pattern: Cartwheel Improv Quilt

Notes:
I fell in love with this whimsical cartwheel block the minute I first saw it on flickr and had been dying to use it. One of my good college friends "recently" had a baby and just like me, she's not so much a girly girl (read: hates pink, loves practical). I wanted to give her new daughter something that she'd would love just as well and this fabric paired with the solids were just the perfect thing, feminine but not sticky sweet.

I decided to do some improvisational piecing for the back and I had the most fun with this. Is it bad to say that I think I like this side better. I just took scraps from the front and pieced them every which way.. squared them up and put them together. I had an extra pink cartwheel and used that in the back just to tie it together (but mostly so it wouldn't go to waste).

I bound it with the orange fabric and in retrospect I think I should have cut the fabric on the bias just to give it more visual appeal. But it didn't occur to me after I started ironing the strips. I'm definitely not killing myself over it, but just something to keep in my head for next time I use a somewhat directional fabric for the binding.

The most difficult part about this quilt was the layout an color choice. What these photos don't show you here was that I originally had 5 colors picked out for the cartwheels. As I was in the process of constructing the blocks and preliminarily started laying them out, one of the "kids" just looked like it didn't belong and I just couldn't figure out which one should go. Thanks to the advice of my flickr friends, the tan was on the outs. I <3 flickr.

Now that this is finally done, I can pack it up and send it along while I plan the next baby quilt and continue to long for my own. But no worries, I've got two planned and in the works for myself. More details to come. For now, I leave you with the full front and back shots of the quilt. Have a great week folks!