Technicolor Safari Sweet Dreams

I look forward to learning about family and friends who are with child, as it means its time to whip up a baby quilt. And I will admit to being even more giddy when I learn it will be a baby girl. So when a friend shared she was expecting a baby girl, I was anxious to get quiltin'. When inquiring about the nursery plans for ideas for theme and colors, she shared that she had selected a Lion King/Jungle theme but indicated she was keeping the colors gender neutral as she was trying to shield her from stereotypical gender roles.

Origami Oasis Prints

While at PIQF, these fabulous giraffe prints from Origami Oasis collection caught my attention. After passing by this booth several days in a row, I finally purchased some yardage and coordinating prints in the last hour of the show--seriously, who could resist those adorable giraffes?!?

Fabric Palette of black and white prints and Kona solids

I pulled out Kona solids in various shades of yellow/oranges, pinks/purples, teals and lime greens, along with some black and white prints including some zebra stripes. I absolutely loved this cheery (gender neutral but certainly not color neutral) palette and went to work researching quilt patterns that would incorporate them all! I found inspiration with this fabulous quilt posted on Pinterest.

I drafted up a basic block design, went to work sewing strip sets and cutting them down into individual blocks. Turns out I had enough blocks to piece 2 quilt tops!

Serepentine Quilted Texture

After hours and hours of researching quilt designs, I thought the hardest part was behind me. Nope--the most challenging part of these quilts was laying out the blocks so that the solid colors did not touch each other! Whenever I tried to swap out a block, it would set forth a whole chain reaction of blocks that would then need to be exchanged. But finally I settled on 2 layouts and went to work piecing the rows and columns and backing. Both were quilted with serpentine quilting, which is super fast and easy, yet provides such amazing quilted texture!

The two quilts differ slightly in terms of backing designs and one of the quilts has some blocks with Origami Oasis prints on the front, whereas the second quilt is all solids. I love both quilts and glad to be able to hold onto one of the tops for a while longer to admire!

When it came time to photograph both finished jungle-themed quilts, well the local park's jungle gym seemed an appropriate setting!