Flower Shower

At the March Designers Downtown Market, my booth neighbor was Amanda of Oh Sew Cute Designs. She makes all sorts of great baby gear, and since I was in need of a shower gift for twin girls, I had to take a look. I fell in love with this fabric and bought two car seat arm pads from her (a really great idea ... wish someone had thought of it 14 years ago!!!). The fabric is by Michael Miller and is called "Flower Shower".
I absolutely love the aqua, coral, and pale lime green. A great girlie fabric without the pink and purple. Amanda was kind enough to hook me up with some yardage as well, and I made two small (24" square) coordinating quilts to go along in the carseat or stroller.

I used hand dyed fabrics and the "Bento Box" pattern by Tracey Brookshire. I modified the pattern by turning every other unit 180 degrees to give it a more random appearance. Then I created my own pattern for some flowers and raw-edge machine appliqued them onto the quilts.

To give the quilts some individuality, I made the centers of the flowers different colors. I free motion quilted them, bound (and backed) the in the Flower Shower fabric and then machine washed and dried them. I love doing this, especially with baby quilts. The batting shrinks up just enough to give the quilts a soft hand and a slightly "worn" feel. The effect of the raw edge applique (intentional) was to fray the edges of the flowers.

I had trouble getting a closeup, but I think you can see the effect. I love these quilts and I hope my neices-to-be will love them as well.

~Michelle