Argyle Baby Quilt

I have a new little nephew coming soon.  I wanted to make a fun quilt for him and knew instantly what it would look like.  My SIL has a love of argyle.  We had their name for Christmas, and I wanted to make an argyle quilt for her back then, but I didn't feel that I had the skills or patience to do it.  I made this quilt for them instead, but did give them an argyle pillow.  After actually making my diamond quilt, I knew that an argyle one would be relatively easy.  This quilt came together quite quickly.  The only problem was that I was 1/3 through piecing the quilt when I realized I had arranged the stripes incorrectly.  I had them going horizontal rather than vertical.  Luckily unpicking wasn't too painful.  Final size is around 48x58.  It's a bit big for a baby quilt, but I hope he can use it for a while.  The fabrics are all Kona: Lagoon, Lime, Khaki, Snow and the binding is Wheat.

The only complaint I had was the shrinkage.  Due to all those bias edges, it skewed a bit when it shrunk.  You can see it a as it hangs.  I have heard this is normal, but it bugs me just a bit.  I figure when it's being used though, no one will be checking if it has perfectly square corners.

Originally, I had planned to only stitch the dark lines through the centers of the blocks.  I decided as I was basting the quilt that I needed to stitch on either side of the seams as well to keep everything tacked down.  I'm so glad I did that.  I just used a light tan thread that doesn't compete with the design I wanted to achieve with the darker thread.

The back is an random arrangement of the leftover fabric using my sew and slash technique.  I used every bit of fabric I bought to make this quilt.  I love it when that happens.

I really love how clean and simple this quilt looks.  It's a great starter quilt for venturing into piecing diamonds because much of it is strip-pieced.  I would love one for our house in fall colors and was thinking it would be a fun quilt along.  Anyone interested in joining up for a QAL around the end of September or so?

I'm linking up this week to Gen X Quilters Summer Fair Quilt Show.  Head on over there and check out the great quilts and recipes.