My 11th Quilt: Welcome Baby S II "Reunion Whack"

I'm finally able to reveal another one of my secret quilts! I started on this almost as soon as I knew my dear friend Laura was expecting another baby. Knowing my friend as I do, I figured there would be no problem if I kept the colors far from the pink/purple spectrum, so I didn't see any reason to wait out the weeks for a gender reveal before I got started on the quilt. 

Since I've only given a couple sneak peeks until now, I'm going to start at the beginning. But, for those - like me - who are a bit impatient, here's the finished product first too! 

Now, back to the beginning: 

I started with most of a layer cake of Reunion fabric - which I am utterly in love with. The colors and those cute little bunting flags? Love. I have a layer cake, plus the leftovers from this, and a charm pack for myself - when I decide what I want to do with them. Anyway!

Following this basic tutorial at Sew We Quilt (found via Pinterest, where else), I made quick work of my chosen fabrics, whacking each into five pieces. 

Swapping the center blocks around more or less at random:

Then quickly putting them back together into larger blocks:

I spent a couple winter nights attempting to puzzle out the best possible layout for the two sides of the quilt and - after another trip to my not-quite-local quilting and fabric store for some coordinating yardage - I was suddenly nearly done! 

The weather never would cooperate for lovely, outside photos - though you can see we tried. 

Turned but not yet quilted

There's really no official top or back, though my quilting changed that a little... 

Since I was short on fabric (having mixed up feet and yards in a math error that made sense at the time but hasn't since), I went with a quick turn - so the quilting did create a top (slightly neater) and back (slightly more off kilter). It's a little more... creative... than I'd intended, but I guess living with the unplanned is a part of quilting - at least for those of us who are disinclined to spend hours ripping out stitches to make it perfect. 

It's a little more wrinkled than I'd anticipated - again, probably due in part to my quick turn choice, and probably due to the tension problems I was having with my machine. 

I do love this quilt - both the fabrics and the way the stack and whack pattern I went with looks - but I wish I had made a few different decisions in the finishing (quilting and binding) steps. I know I could have torn it apart (at least in theory), but after staring at the quilted but not yet washed version for months, I wasn't bothered enough to try to unpick it all - so Baby S II and her family will just have to love it the way it is. Although, Laura is going to have to pick a favorite side if she ends up hanging this one on the wall eventually (the current home for her son's quilt). I wasn't thinking of that...