Sparkle Punch Baby Quilt

My first attempt to machine quilt!  I have made several quilts by hand quilting them.  But it takes sooooo long.... and it's not fun to have bleeding, sore fingers from poking them with a needle (which is actually a bit of a necessity in hand quilting, believe it or not--- it's how you know the needle is just barely through the layers of fabric)!  I have heard so many stories about how long it takes to learn to get the machine quilting process right, and I never wanted to experiment on quilt tops after putting all the work into piecing them.  So I frequently made the quilt tops and then stopped right there.  Or I just sewed in straight lines with my machine, pretending that it was a form of machine quilting (it WAS a form of machine quilting, but it didn't qualify in my mind because it wasn't an all-over pattern).  So, I finally took a deep breath and tried it!  I am happy to say that it wasn't anywhere near as bad as I thought it would be.  Or rather, had my machine been working properly it wouldn't have been bad at all.  But my machine decided to break the thread every few inches which turned out to be a major pain--- but the quilting process wasn't difficult!  I simply need a new machine.  (Yes, I have paid to have it repaired, only to have it revert back to not working again a few weeks later.) I have my eye on one......

My Sparkle Punch Quilt

I first saw a sparkle punch quilt top on pinterest, and when I followed the link through, I was delighted to find instructions on how to make the quilt. It is on Oh, Fransson- here. I had lots of scrap fabrics in a blue/dark blue/yellow/red/orange/green color theme that I liked.  I was very surprised to discover that I actually used very little of my fabric stash to make it!  I really thought it would use more fabric.  It definitely took a bit of time and thread, though!  Every time I sew, my husband comments on the ridiculous amounts of thread that get brushed to the side in a pile until I'm done for the day and can throw them away.  I felt the instructions were great, and I also recommend having the little square ruler to "square" up the blocks before sewing them together.  I almost didn't get one because I thought I could just do it on my rotary mat, but with how many squares there are, it would have taken a lot longer to line up the big ruler before each cut.  The little square quilting rulers are only a few dollars, and are well worth the time saved in such a time-consuming quilt! 

I love how they did the backing on Oh, Fransson, but I was working with small fabric scraps, and my goal is to actually use my fabric stash.... so it just wasn't going to happen.  I also like it when cuddle quilts are made with soft backings such as minky or anti-pill fleece.  So, I used orange fleece and used more scraps to put my cute little nephew's name on it.  Fleece and minky also show the quilting pattern really well......which is nice when it works out, not so nice when there are mistakes (or problematic machines)!  I know the lighting isn't great on this.... but it was COLD outside, and the lighting in this house plain old stinks. 

The sparkle punch quilt is a fun quilt to make, and I know I'll be making another in the future!