A little flannel finish

I really am rather fond of flannel. I do particularly like a flannel backed quilt. I find it always worth pre-washing, mind, and I am generally an avid anti-pre-washer. But flannel tends to shrink, and that is not a desirable quality in a quilt back.

Here are some of my flannel backed lovelies:

Backed with Ruby flannel I believe

You'll have to trust me on this one ....

Flannel backed baby quilts =  perfection

There is one downside to flannel though. It is really heavy, and bulky. And as I buy much of my fabric from the States, that is bad news. The lovely folk at Pink Castle Fabrics and Fat Quarter Shop will cram as much quilting cotton as humanly possible into a flat rate envelope, generally about 10.5 yards. But alas, only 4 yards max of flannel will fit. That make those shipping charges not so great value for money. That said, I read this week that FQS have changed their shipping policies. This could be good news for us flannel lovers, yes? I'd be interested to know if anyone tries it out, as I am still fabric fasting. YAWN.

Anyway so then last year the lovely Rae released the even lovelier Fanfare Flannels. And I was smitten. But shipping charges, not good. So when hubby announced a business trip to the States, I did the only sensible thing and ordered a gigantic box of Fanfare flannels to be sent direct to his hotel.

It was a great purchase, has seen me through lots of sweet new baby boy gifts:

A scrumptious blankie for my very own baby:

And I still have yardage of the pink foxes to make the intended pyjamas for my girls this Winter ... best crack on with that hadn't I?! Oh and of course I won't be buying any of Rae's new Fanfare flannel in gorgeous new colours. Even though I really really want to. Meh. 

Anyway, a dear friend has had a new baby boy this Summer, and I was a bit at a loss as to what to make for him. I'm a bit over bibs, to be honest, and I had lots of scraps of the flannel which I wanted to use up. So I did some chopping, some basic quilt maths and some pondering and came up with this: 

Just simple colours, simple patchwork. A mixture of flannel and quilting cotton. I normally always quilt white background quilts in white thread, but I felt this needed a bit of something more, so I used an Aurifil pale grey (#2600) but in 40wt for a bit of extra pop. A diagonal crosshatch all marked out with a  Hera marker.

I pieced the back to use up those last Fanfare scraps and because at 42" square this quilt just rules out a WOF backing. I love the way the quilting shows up here.

Added a label, not my favourite task but essential I now feel (and lament the number of quilts gifted without one). Embellished with my new Aurifloss thread and some simple hand stitches. 

And for the binding, voile of course. Scraps again, of AMH from my voile sparkling cider quilt. Because like flannel backings, voile bindings on baby quilts are perfection. A little sliver of silky loveliness. Hand stitched down this time, because that finish is my favourite.

I haven't met this new little man yet. I am the sort of new mama who hides away from visitors and jealously guards my baby to myself so I prefer to offer the same respect to other new parents in those precious few days and weeks. But her partner is back at work now, my big girl is back at school next week and I suspect that mad rush has died down, so in a week or two we will visit. And what a lovely gift we have to give.

Here is the detail:

Pattern: Simple patchwork inspired by Jeni's picnic quilt. Squares are 4" finished.

Fabric: Fanfare flannel (prints and white solid) by Rae Hoeskstra, Waterfront Park by Violet Craft, Botanics by Carolyn Friedlander (the white tone on tone crosshatch), a name forgotten yellow circle dot.

Backing: Sketch in Mist plus Fanfare flannel

Binding: AMH voile

Quilting: Straight line crosshatch in Arufil 40wt #2600

Size: 42" square

Happily linking up with finish it up Friday over at Crazy Mom Quilts. Because it is Friday, and I did.

I do have other finishes to show you, which actually feature on my Q3 FAL list, I just need to get around to blogging about them! Time feels to be at a real premium here at the moment. Watch this space!