Little Brother’s patchwork blanket – finished!

I finished it!
(click here to see the whole lengthy process)
Actually, I finished it back in August, but Little Brother immediately carried it off to his bed so I didn’t get around to photographing it until now. He absolutely loves it!
This has been the most rewarding thing I have ever made for my sons (despite that the one I made for Big Brother didn’t turn out quite right) – they both enjoy their blankets so much.They got to choose the colours, help pick the fabrics and see me spend a lot (a whole lot) of time making it, I think it makes them feel extra special. And me too: making something for a loved one feels good 🙂

Well, enough mushy talk. Here are lots of pictures!

I embroidered a label and appliqued it to the back, just as I did for Big Brother.

Some tension issues with my sewing machine again *sigh*

And this was my first time working with bias binding. I love this little print and the way it looks – it really finishes the blanket off. When I bought it I was worries it would be too narrow, but I think in the end it worked out just perfectly.

As for the technical details: I haven’t measured the finished quilt but the squares measure 15×15 cm and I made 15 rows of 10 squares, so it should measure to a little over 140×220 cm (which is a standard blanket size).
I bought the binding, the wadding and some of the fabrics at our weekly market; the wadding is a thick cotton flannel. It makes the blanket nice and heavy but still relatively thin.
The backing was originally a duvet cover from Ikea which my mom got on sale and gave to me. I had it laying around for years until this seemed like the perfect project to use it on.
Fabrics are from my stash, my mom’s and my sister’s and even from my grandmother’s. One is from and old fabric swap, and a few I got at a fabric market years ago. Several of the fabrics I also used for Big Brother’s blanket.
A few of the fabrics I got online: the green cars are Cruiser Blvd Cars Green by Sheri McCulley Studio for Riley Blake, the multi coloured cars are Cruiser Blvd Mini Blue by Sheri McCulley Studio for Riley Blake, and the airplanes are Ready Set Go Sky Airplanes by Ann Kelle for Robert Kaufman (all bought at this Etsy shop) .There are others but I can’t find the details on them.

patchwork quilt