Hide & Seek Spectrum Quilt from Handmade Beginnings

If you're going to buy one sewing book for baby gifts, it really must be Handmade Beginnings by Anna Maria Horner. Really. REALLY. I can't say enough for this book. Chock full of beautiful, beautiful projects, and many of them adaptable for non-baby-related gifts (slippers, pillow, purse, wall decor). Add to that the spiral hardback design, generous photographs, and copious use of Anna's fabrics, sigh... a big "thanks" to Wiley Publishing for sending me a review copy!

Several mama friends are expecting new babies (lucky ducks). I'm glad to get to share in the fun by stitching baby gifts. I totally missed the wave with my kids - didn't sew back then. So, now's my chance!!! I asked Bethany to look through Handmade Beginnings to see if she liked anything. I was beside myself when she pointed out the Hide & Seek Spectrum Quilt. It's one of my very favorite ideas in the book!

Anna's Hide & Seek Spectrum Quilt is very rainbow hued, but Bethany wanted one a little "off". Mustard yellow was a requirement (I changed out the yellow shown in the above picture for a true mustard) and I knew she'd favor a brown center block over a black one. So, between solids in my stash and solids added, here's my materials list for the dark and light solids

Brown: Kona sable and Kona wheat or taupe

Yellow: Kona Curry and Kona Mustard

Orange: Kona Amber and Freebird Ovals in Melon

Red: Kona Wine and Kona Pomagranate

Pink: Kona Cerise and Good Folks Filigree

Purple: Kona Eggplant and Kona Lupine

Blue: Kona Surf and Little Folks Diamond Mine

Teal: Kona Emerald and Kona Sage

Green: Kona Peridot and Good Folks Filigree

So, I did sneak in a few (mostly) tonal prints in place of some of the lighter solids. These were fabrics I had in my stash already and felt would work well. I think the result is not distracting, but I'm not quite sure if I want to use all solids next time. What do you think? Is it fun or distracting?

Yes, there has to be a next time!

The only thing I will do differently next time, as per the construction, is to cut the fabric, flip-open doors to be wider than the peek-a-boo blocks underneath. Anna Maria Horner designed the doors and printed blocks to be exactly the same size, which made for fussing sewing when lining up the doors so that they perfectly covered the prints when closed. Just cutting the doors half an inch larger will make that step easy.