Today we’ll be taking a look at one of the best baby quilt pattern books that I’ve come across in a long time! Modern Baby by Martingale is a collection of 14 very different modern baby quilts created by various designers. I found this to be a great book during the season of becoming an aunt 1, 2, 3 times in the past 2 years! The Bubbles Quilt on the cover is what initially caught my eye, but I still haven’t have the right opportunity to make the fantastic fish quilt for any little ones in my life yet! I did end up making one of the more complicated applique quits: The Birdhouse Quilt by Carrie Bloomston.
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The Final Product
In the end, I loved how this quilt turned out. It’s not exactly my style, so this was a bit of a stretch for me. But my sister-in-law loved it and my niece is fascinated by the bright and cheery colors with swirls of flowers all over!
This quilt is made in a whimsical way, using scraps of bright, colorful fabrics, and a very freestyle applique technique. It reminds me of a children’s drawing, which just adds to the whimsy and funness of the baby girl quilt. As a bit of a perfectionist, it freaked me out to think that it might look like I was a bad quilter! In the end, I decided that it takes a good quilter to let go enough and make a perfectly “imperfect” quilt.
The Book
I think that this is a really great book! I really look forward to making more patterns from it. I really appreciate the thorough directions and little hints and tricks that are scattered throughout.
If I had to complain about anything, I would say the only thing that they don’t explain is paper piecing. As someone who wants to learn more about this incredibly beautiful technique, and loves the quilts in the book that use it, I was disappointed to see that there wasn’t anything in the book to explain it to me. To be fair, they give you a link to a free download with instructions (and practice) on how to paper piece. For something that is hard to explain on paper, they do a pretty good job. Having tried it myself with no outside help, I will say that it’s a great tool for learning on your own, I just would have preferred it to be in the book; that would have made it even more of an invaluable tool to my pattern library! Here’s my first attempt at paper piecing one of the gorgeous blocks from the Tiny Textured Trees patterns!
Back to the book! The diversity of patterns really makes this a great book for those of us who seem to be in the midst of baby season! Rather than spending money on a bunch of different baby quilt patterns, this single book gives lots of options that your mothers-to-be are sure to love! I’d suggest this book to a friend and can’t wait to use it some more myself.
Be sure to hop on over to Amazon.com and pick up a copy of Modern Baby for yourself! I know you’ll enjoy it as much as I did. If you have used this Modern Baby quilt book, make sure to show off your projects and let me know your thoughts in the comments below!