Bee Quilt - Trip Todd

I wasn't in the mood for any sewing during the first weeks of lock down of the Coronavirus Pandemic earlier this year. . 

One day I just took the bee blocks from last year out and put them on the design wall. I liked it so much that I started to arrange them and fill in the gaps. 

I specifically picked these blocks for a toddler quilt. I used blues in different shades, greys and oranges. The main focus was on solids with just a few prints to add interest.  This is the selection:

The blocks are pieced using a method by Debbie of A Quilter's Table called 'wedge slabs' and you can find it here. 

Since a very long time I used my old sewing machine to quilt wavy lines from the selection of stitches. I wanted something that is very stable and can resist the play of not one toddler, not two, no, three toddlers! Born all at ones - yes, triplets! All boys! I called the quilt 'Trip Todd' - short cut for Triplet Toddler. 

I'm so happy to give them this quilt knowing it gets used and loved makes me very happy! 

For the back I used one of my favourite cross hatch fabrics in blue and the binding is a bright orange to give the quilt a nice frame. I applied this binding by machine for extra durability - three boys, you know. 

Thank you to my lovely bee mates from the 'Quilty Circle of Bees' who made those lovely bee blocks: 

Christiane, Friederike, Magda, Melanie. 

How to - roll up your binding while sewing

I thought I share another little tip today.

There are different methods of how to roll up your binding and this is how I do it:

I use a wooden spool, which I bought in a lovely fabric store in Dublin. For this baby quilt the binding wasn't too long, it does get quite full when it's a lap size quilt though, but it still works!

While sewing the binding to the quilt I place the spool on my lap. The binding rolls up nicely and lays already flat on the quilt. It works really well for me. Try it out!

What do you do with your binding?

Linking this to the 'Tips and Tutorials Tuesday' at Late Night Quilter.