Baby Quilt Commission

Following Cambridge Open Studios, my friend Alison asked me to design and make a baby quilt for a soon to be expected grandchild. The mother to be loves elephants so that was the starting point for my brief. After an initial design Alison decided that it was a good idea to keep the quilt gender neutral so we agreed that I would make the quilt bright red, white, bright blue and navy. The central part would be an elephant print, white on red; the main work would be kept to the borders, partly to keep the work and therefore the price to a minimum. The photo shows my preparation for the border units called 'Flying Geese'.  These are rectangles with a large central triangle which is the 'goose' flying in some direction.  I made over 50 geese units in case some turned out to be too wonky to use. 
The next photo shows the method I used to create the geese. You lay two smaller squares on a larger piece, draw a line down the centre, stitch on both side, cut, flip and press. Then with each separate mini block you add another square, draw the central line, stitch on both sides (1/4" seam of course). Therefore one large square and four smaller squares yields four flying geese units. It's not as complicated as it sounds and you can make lots of units in a short space of time. 

I cut the central panel, added a dark border then laid everything out to see if the design works. I know many quilters 'out there' use a design wall but I don't have the space......I put everything on the rug in my studio! Many apologies as to the quality of the photo as I can see it's somewhat out of focus at the back but you can get the idea. 

Finally, a close up of one of the finished corners. I quilted the central portion using a meandering line with the odd five pointed star. The navy border and the flying geese borders had a random quilting stitch as I didn't want the quilting to detract from the fabric print.  I used a different elephant print on the reverse and added a very simple blue binding. The whole thing came out quite large and I hope that at some point in the future I will add another loose layer on the back with some Velcro tabs so that it will be possible to include a small duvet which will extend the life of the quilt when the baby is ready for a big bed.