Finished Modern Baby Quilt: Maryn

I had the pleasure of pulling together this simple, yet impactful, baby quilt for a friend's little one lately. Said friend, Jenna of Call Her Happy (hey Jenna!), mentioned wanting to learn how to quilt so she could make a little baby quilt! Before her baby arrived! In like, 6 weeks, so not really feasible, but nesting urges. So I very not sneakily asked her to choose her fave Nani Iro fabric from Miss Matatabi, and the journey began.

Don't know Nani Iro? Japanese fabric designer amazingness. Don't know Miss Matatabi? Awesome fabric shop based in Japan selling way too much good stuff. Nani Iro + Miss Matatabi = YES. Please visit, try not to spend alllll yo' money in one go.

Mk, but back to the story, she chose this simply fabulous Nani Iro print with a bright cobalt blue field - my fave color, obvs, so I was pretty excited. One of my favorite thing about NI prints is that they are so organic, with such large scale repeats, that seams just disappear. I used a Nani Iro print for the background of this quilt, from my book:

And I've been crazy addicted ever since.

I knew I wanted something simple, to really let the NI fabric remain the star of the show. I pulled fabric for quite awhile before I grabbed a Kona bundle and worked to come up with this super sweet, simple quilt top:

It was awesome in my head. Started piecing, and loved it. Pieced it all together, and was like OMG it looks horrible. Then I kinda liked it. Then I basted it and liked it a little more. Then I grabbed my favorite variegated Sulky, quilted it, and hated it. I thought I ruined it!!! I don't know, I just didn't like how the black thread looked on the white. Then I washed it and was completely in love. I feel like I lucked out a bit on it, ha! Sometimes when things look bad, pushing through doesn't change anything. This time, that washing made the quilt. Something about that NI double gauze just comes to life when it's crinkly in a washed quilt. I think it's just another aspect of the fabric that I love; it's really, truly most beautiful in a finished project. You can't say that about every fabric! There's just something so grounding when the materials you are working with coincide and contribute so greatly to the finished creation.