Damien's Echino Quilt

It was finally nice enough outside during daylight hours that I am home (cause were in LA) for me to take pictures of the full Echino quilt I made my son.  I love it so much, I want one of my own, soon.  So does many of my family members!  We all love snuggling under it with my son when he's watching one of his shows during wind down time.  

I knew I wanted to do framed boxes for the design but the end result was a bit of an accident.  I am terrible at math, and I cut the solid first frame twice and large as I wanted it.  I had intended to do a small solid border followed by a larger print border.  Oops.  But I like the way it turned out because I think it really highlights the center Echino prints.

I worked on it over the New Year's holiday when my son was at his grandparent's house for 4 days.  It got cold in Berkeley (for an LA girl) and we turn the heat way down when we sleep.  So, my son needed a warmer blanket.  He was so excited to see it when he got home, he pointed out all the cars and the buses and planes, and animals and named every color.  That made me so happy.

I didn't want to do a lot of quilting with minky so I initially tried the sew right sides together and turn method, top stitching around (yes, there is betting in the middle as well).  After I did that I thought it was a little unstable, so I quilted a few vertical and horizontal lines to stabilize it.  The first run through without pinning (what was I thinking!!!!) was a disaster.  Guess I thought that since it was topstitched it would stay in place.  WRONG.  So after pulling that out, which was HARD, I pinned a lot and then quilted a few lines, and that worked fine.  The one other thing I did wrong was that I didn't pre-wash my top fabrics, so when I did wash the quilt, it shrank a little (no shocker there) and so the back is a little baggy in a few places.  Next time I will pre-wash the quilt top after stitching around the edges to prevent a lot of fraying (I like working with unwashed fabrics when piecing).  

Can't wait to have time to move on the next one.  I just stocked up on TONS more minky backing.  To me, heavy, soft, fluffly, warm quilts are preferred.  Echino and minky is a match made in heaven for me.