A Finished Economy Block Quilt…Made for a Five Year Old Boy

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Approximately one year after I cut the first squares for this quilt, I finally finished it. I have one very happy and excited five year old boy. I made this for my oldest son, Case.

These economy blocks take a lot of patience and perseverance for me, and I have to be honest that this quilt feels a bit small for as much time and work went into it. I like big quilts. Most of the quilts I finish are larger than throw size. This one is right at throw size.

The blocks were five and a half inches prior to being stitched together. I sewed nine blocks across and twelve blocks down. The finished size is 45 by 60 inches. It’s perfect for a five year old boy to cuddle, but it’s a bit too small for fort building. 🙂

I used a whole bunch of fabrics from my stash. I had this pile sitting for almost a year, and I’d add any boy friendly fabrics I found as I sifted through past fabrics. Most of these fabrics are not available anymore.

All of the stripes you see are Sevenberry Stripes. The binding is a Sevenberry Stripe in black. Where can you find fun and colorful fabrics? You just have to start browsing. Here are a few places to start:

Modern Violet – great small shop for fun Heather Ross prints.
Fresh Modern Fabrics – large variety of fabrics with many prints.
Fat Quarter Shop – large selection and can sort by children’s fabrics.
Sew Organic – excellent experience with customer service & all organic fabrics.
Kiwi Fabric – wide variety of many fabrics. Fast shipping.
Fabric.com – great when buying multiple yards for backing.
Polka Dot Secrets – lots of florals and real pictures of the fabrics.

I used 100% cotton batting. This time I used the Toasty Warm batting.

Instead of purchasing new fabrics for the backing, I used leftover bits and pieces from the front of the quilt on the back. This worked well within my informal goal of using up my fabric stash this year.

My only tip for scrappy backs is to continuously square up your fabrics after sewing them together. Sew two pieces together and square them up. Sew another piece on to those original pieces and square them up again. Make sense? It’s always easier to baste and quilt when the back lays very flat.

I used Red Pepper Quilt’s tutorial for making these economy blocks. The cutting and trimming method Rita recommends worked well for me. It was indeed time consuming, but when it was time to sew the completed blocks into rows, they went together so easily. Each one had been trimmed to near perfect size, and putting together the quilt top was such a joy with the tediously uniform blocks.

Economy blocks are absolutely perfect blocks for fussy cutting. The two blocks highlighted in the above photo (the little red sweater and the green frogs) are my absolute favorites. The red sweater and yellow pants are from an old Aneela Hoey line, and the frogs are from Heather Ross’ Kinder line of fabric.

I often am asked where I found that plus sign fabric. That fabric is actually a cut up set of sheets I found at Target years ago. This is the first time I have actually cut into a sheet instead of using it as a backing. So far, I haven’t noticed any disadvantages of mixing this sheet in with other high quality quilting cottons.

My son has declared this block with the red tractor and barn his favorite. 🙂

If you have followed me for any length of time, you may have noticed this quilt is rather colorful compared to my usual tastes. (You almost never see red in my quilts.) I’m definitely a more low volume kind of quilter, but it’s always a good experience to push myself outside my typical favorites and preferences.

I told Case, my son, that his quilt was finally finished. The next words to be spoken were from my three year old asking where his quilt was.

Ha!

I will make him a quilt soon, but I have already determined it won’t be an economy block quilt.

Finishing this quilt is a reminder that I should finish more quilts. I tend to start them faster than I can finish them. 😉

The photo shoot for this quilt digressed quite quickly once the boys came in from playing outside, but I figured at least one photo with the quilt’s new owner was appropriate.

Oh little boy, I hope you cherish this quilt for a few years…until you get older and will need a big boy quilt.