Does it seem like everyone you know is having a baby this year or is it just my friends? I don't even think it's because we're also having a baby that it seems like there is a baby boom in 2015.

Lots of babies means lots of handmade gifts. I've been trying to work ahead on quilts. I finished this quilt before the recipient was born. I think that's a new personal record.

Excuse my high quality photos. I'm easing back into this blogging thing.

It helped that this quilt is a "cheater" quilt. The name sounds a little ugly but the quilt most certainly isn't.

Cheater quilts are great because you don't have to piece the top. You find yourself a nice piece of fabric with a patchwork pattern and you sandwich a piece of batting in between your pretty patchwork fabric and a backing fabric. (I used this cheater fabric and this backing fabric. There is also a blue cheater that I have my eyes on. (*edit* This fabric has since sold out but I'll link other options at the bottom of this post!*) You then sew along the edges in whatever fashion you choose. You bind the quilt. Wash it. Boom. Gift complete. This quilt probably took me about 4 hours.

The next one will hopefully take me a little less time because I was getting used to my new sewing machine. I received the Brother CS6000i for Christmas. I'm in love! It's a really great machine and very affordable. I had previously owned a cheap Singer from Target. I really enjoy sewing a lot more with this new machine!

Here's the quilt after I finished "quilting" on the horizontal and vertical lines of the cheater fabric.

Next up is the binding. I choose to machine bind because I will not even pretend to have the patience to hand bind. My machine binding still needs some work but I'm making improvements. My imperfections are probably only noticeable by me but there's definitely room for improvement. I use this tutorial from Cluck Cluck Sew to guide me.

See that pink hippo up there. I can't take credit for making this quilt alone. Ike LOVES to quilt.

My favorite part of making quilts is grabbing them from the dryer for the first time. A good wash and dry makes them so soft and wrinkly. I always tell my friends to make sure to use the quilts because they get better with every wash!

Tips for Finding Fabric

When looking for fabric for my "cheater" quilts, I search for "cheater fabric" or "patchwork fabric". Some of my favorite sites are Amazon, Fabricworm or Spoonflower.