January Finish 2: E's nap quilt

Last year a friend came by and in our conversation, she mentioned a quilt she loved--and that she would buy one like it if I would make her one. Sometimes I am a little slow, but slowly this sank into my brain and I figured out I should make her a quilt.

Her inspiration quilt was Denyse Schmidt's Hop, Skip, Jump pattern from her book Denyse Schmidt Quilts. Her pattern used a template to cut out everything and then put them into blocks. A couple of years ago I made this quilt for a student I mentored, and while it is a similar look (depending how you make your cuts), it was a much simpler, improve method of construction. So I did that instead,

I did work to make my cuts more like those on Denyse Schmidt's quilt, less angular than my previous quilt.

As I worked on the front and was getting closer to finishing it, I started thinking hard about the backing. I really wanted to use what I had already, if I could make it work. I had a lot of white fabrics with red print, most of which were leftovers from other quilt backings. After I finished the top and knew what size I needed, I played around with them and (after adding a strip of red) came up with this:

I did regret the strip of red fabric, which I also used for the binding after I washed it and had red splotches to deal with. Thankfully after washing it a few more times, all was well.

And now I'm off to go finish another one while the sun is shining in my sewing room!