Mustang Baby Quilt

I started this sweet Mustang quilt last spring while I was working my way through quilt kits and going through the motions of making to keep myself engaged in something creative. I was excited to see this one come together. I love the fabrics and the piecing was varied enough to keep me interested through every stage. It should have finished around 42" x 55", but I had trouble with the half-square triangle border.

To this day, I do not know where the mistake was. I followed the pattern directions, but the borders did not fit as they should have. I went ahead and sewed them on anyhow - always a bad idea - and then shoved the entire thing to the side until this past January. In an effort to #finishiterin, I decided the best course of action would be to take the borders off and see if I could fix them. I spent some q.t. with my seam ripper and removed the four borders. Then as I looked at them, I really couldn't remember what the original issue was. Were the HST units too big? Too small? It just seemed easier and more efficient to plow ahead without the borders.

And you know what? It's still a sweet quilt, albeit slightly smaller than the original one, about 38" x 51". It is missing the interest that the border adds, but if I didn't tell you, you would know. And it made the perfect gift for a baby girl whose mother loves horses.

The details: All of the fabric is by Cotton + Steel and, as of this posting, the kit is still available (and on sale!) at the Fat Quarter Shop. The pattern is available for free on the Cotton + Steel website. The backing fabric is I Heart Bees in Denim and the binding is a random pink solid from my stash. I used a cotton batting and quilted it with straight lines on either sides of some of the seams. I chose to quilt it rather lightly so it would have some drape after washing. I add the entire binding by machine and it came together well.

Did I mention that this is the year I perfect my machine binding? It is! If you have a favorite machine binding method or tip/trick, I'd love to hear about it in the comments.

Comments

[Barbara]

I wonder why the border didn't fit correctly, are you still wondering also. It looks beautiful just the way it is.
You can't go wrong with Cotton & Steel.

[Molly Deschenes]

Quilts really are forgiving, aren't they. This is beautiful. I still haven't attempted an all-machine binding but I'd love to learn how to do it. I hope this post garners lots of comments!

[Jen R]

Love your quilt! I like making single fold bias and following these directions - but I reverse it so the stitching ON the binding is on the front of the quilt rather than the back. http://cluckclucksew.com/2013/01/machine-binding-tutorial.html I just find it easy to do and like how this prevents any of my uneven/imperfect stitches to veer onto the binding on the back side.

[Masha]

It is beautiful.

[Suzanne]

With or without the borders, it's great. I use Rachel's machine binding tutorial a lot. It's forgiving which I like because the mere act of dong it is helping me improve and muster the courage to do the other bindings that look more like handsewn ones.

http://www.stitchedincolor.com/2011/11/zigzag-binding-tutorial.html

[Sarah C]

It looks so good. Those prints will go down as some of my all time favorites. XO

[Kathleen]

Fun quilt!

I had great success using the machine-binding tutorial from Red Pepper Quilts.

[kristin]

Oh wow it looks great, Erin! I love the fabric combo and design...really just fantastic.

[Barbara]

. . . three days later and I'm still loving' it!

[Tine]

I love that line! Pretty much all the Cotton + Steel lines are gorgeous :-)
I love those fussy cut ponies!