Thursday, October 29, 2026

A Finished Square Dance Baby Quilt on I Quilted This!

Hello and welcome 😃 I hope that you're doing well and enjoying the Fall. I managed to finish Square Dance, the first of three baby quilts for JJ's friends. I always want to keep it simple when FMQ but I can't help myself! So here is Square Dance in all of its glory. 😍

Square Dance Ready for a Baby!

It's done! I really love this pattern, it was perfect for showcasing pretty fabrics. I used Kona cottons for the blocks and then novelty fabric in the centre using fabric that depicted things that the parents love to do - there's adventure, pickle ball, dinosaurs, Star Wars, etc. Of course there's a lot of just very cute baby fabric. JJ helped me design the quilt. They have a wonderful sense of colour 😊

Square Dance baby quilt

As you can see from the photo, I made a scrappy binding for the quilt. I just ensured that the binding fabric wasn't against the same colour in the quilt - otherwise it disappears and looks off. I machine quilted it using white Bottom Line thread. It's not the best job I've ever done but I was able to fix it so that it's respectable.

The last thing that I did was FMQ the centre blocks with the same Bottom Line thread. I used a FriXion pen when possible to draw the stencil, and chalk pen on dark fabric. It's pretty difficult to see, but here's the adventure square that is FMQ. The next image shows the stencil.

A lovely sun stencil for the centre squares

The sun stencil used

Since I took the time to share with you most of the blocks, here are the ones that haven't been posted yet. You can see better if you enlarge them by clicking on the photo.

This block was FMQ with ice cream at the top and flower chains for the rest.

Ice cream at the top and flower chains

FMQ with flowers

Geometric FMQ and birds!

Fun designs from Lorri Kennedy

The glamour shot

The back of the quilt

What I learned

I love FMQ, until I'm fed up! Unfortunately the quilt finish and the fed-up feelings often don't synchronize!
I will have to try to remember, for the next baby quilt, that simple quilting can be elegant and lovely. I don't need to go crazy with every quilt 😁
I wasn't very happy with my machine binding - I'll have to be more mindful for the next one.
As I looked at the quilt after taking pictures, I realised that I haven't FMQ one of the centre blocks! I'll get to that tomorrow, as well as prepare the label.
This quilt was my October OMG (and September's). I'm thrilled that it's finished and will be gifted to JJ's friend and her baby.
I've been working on my October Quilter's Cove house - it's almost done but I still need to quilt it. Please come back on Saturday for the linking party 😍

I Quilted This!

Welcome to the I Quilted This! linking party that celebrates quilting on a domestic machine or custom quilting on a long-arm. Feel free to link up and share any recent project, even if you're not quilting it!

Here are the posts that included FMQ, ruler work and walking foot quilting last week. Thanks for linking up 😊 and consider grabbing the button.

Viridian from Viridian's Blog finished a jellyroll quilt UFO from 2021 called Three at a Time by Moda. She stitched it in the ditch.

Viridian's latest finish, Three at a Time

Kat from Scrapbox Quilts quilted up a baby top donated through Heartstrings group. Kat backed it with a fleece fabric and quilted it using a circular grid.

Kat backed and quilted a baby donation quilt

Diann from Little Penguin Quilts made another placemat with the scraps left over from the previous two made last week. The placemat got a very cute penguin backing - what's not to love!