Bonnie Hunter's Strip Twist for Liam's Birthday

I've been feeling the pressure of needing to have several gifts finished around the same time.  January was easy with one grandson's birthday.  March was son-in-law's birthday.  But now, I have a daughter, granddaughter and grandson all having birthdays within a 3 week span of time.  

For my youngest grandson Liam who will be turning 4 years old, I wanted a quilt to match his personality. This meant that the quilt needed to be wild and fun.  I also needed a fairly simple design that would come together quickly.

I chose to use Bonnie Hunter's pattern called Strip Twist.  She offers this pattern, along with many others, completely FREE on her website. Just click on the link above to be taken directly to this pattern.

I chose to use a Jelly Roll (pre-cut 2 1/2" WOF strips) of a fabric line called The Lorax by Robert Kaufman. I also pulled from my stash, lots of solid colored 2 1/2" strips that would coordinate and compliment the colors in this fabric line.

Bonnie Hunter is well known for giving clear, easy to understand instructions.  It was certainly true for this design also.  Before I knew it, the strips were sewn, cut, sewn again and now I have all of my blocks ready to assemble.

You can make as many blocks as you desire to create the size quilt you prefer.  In my case, I made a total of 40 blocks and played around with the layout.  I settled on an 8 block across x 10 blocks down layout.  You get to play and experiment at this point to place your blocks in the best spot to get the desired "wow" factor.

Then it was time to quilt.....

I chose to use a quilting pantograph design called Bauhaus from Urban Elementz.  I thought the modern design really complimented the wild, crazy and fun Strip Twist pattern and Dr. Seuss - The Lorax fabric collection.

Quilting is finished and I'm very pleased with the outcome!  The final measurement is 62" x 77".

To add to the craziness and whimsy of the entire quilt (and since it was all I had in my stash of fabrics without shopping :), I used a light blue polka dot flannel and a light green polka dot flannel as the quilt backing.  I didn't have enough of either fabric to back the entire quilt so I pieced the two together. Half of the back is a soft, snugly flannel blue on white and the other half is a soft, snugly flannel green on white.  The texture of the quilting on the flannel back is extremely nice.

All that's left to do is sew on a handwritten label and attach the binding.  Although I typically hand-sew the binding on my quilts, whenever making a quilt that I'm sure will get lots of wear and tear (aka LOVE), I tend to machine sew the binding on both the front and back.  I've got the binding cut and ready to start sewing. For the first time, I'm using flannel as my binding also....I'm curious to see how this works. :)

Find time to make and create today....it's so much cheaper than therapy!!!!!!!