A quilt for Maddie

This little quilt was different than most that I make, because it's for my new little niece.  My husband's youngest brother and his wife just had their first baby, so I had a LOT of fun making this one!

These stars are actally 'wonky' or 'liberated' whatever you call them.  But I didn't try to make them funky, so just looking at them, you almost thing that they're 'proper' pieced stars.  Here's a great tutorial for how to make them.  (I made my blocks 8" instead of 12.5", so I cut the squares to 3" instead of 4.5")

These stars are one of my never-fail backup plans, because I think they always turn out.  Stars seem like such a classic quilt theme, yet these wonky ones have enough personality to keep from being all stuffy and best-guest-room looking!

For the quilting, I first quilted with my machine along the seam lines around each block.  I then hand quilted around each star with pink perle cotton.  It was so fun and easy to hand quilt these, because I didn't need to use a hoop or frame.  The reason being that I had machine quilted already, so it didn't need to be held together.

The back with her name embroidered in pink.

I'm linking up to Amy's Blogger's Quilt Festival.  If you want to see a huge amount of awesome quilts all in one place, go check it out!