Eeee!!! I’m a new Auntie. 

You’ve seen my little niece Nina a lot here on the blog. She’s really special to me.

Well, Nina became a big sister on Tuesday morning with the arrival of her little sister, Tess Trina. Yes, you read that right – her middle name is my first name… melt. my. heart!! It still hasn’t sunk in yet. I’m so incredibly touched. And the naming was a surprise so I only found out when my friend called me to tell me Tess had arrived safely and everyone was doing well. 

This is me snuggling the new little one. I’m pretty sure I was tearing up (or hadn’t stopped crying since I talked to my friend earlier in the day) and that’s why I was refusing to look at the camera. Also, I couldn’t take my eyes off this little sweetie. 

Of course, a new baby needs a new quilt.

I started on this quilt a while back. You never know if babies will arrive early or take their sweet time. Tess decided she was in no rush (just like her sister), so I’ve had this quilt ready and waiting for a while now.

The flowery squares are a simple nine-patch made up of Liberty fabric. I really wanted something soft and cuddly and Liberty fabric was just perfect for that. I ordered this fabric online since there are no local stores here that carry Liberty.

My favourite part of this quilt construction was absolutely the free motion quilting work (FMQ). This is probably my biggest FMQ endeavour to date and was so pleased with how it all came together. 

I knew I wanted to try and play with some ruler work on the nine-patch Liberty grid. Armed with my favourite Aurifil 2024 50W, a new ruler foot for my sewing machine and an arch quilting ruler, I went to work. I {heart} ruler work. It’s definitely my new obsession.

I love how precise this makes my lines turn out!

It gave the front of the quilt a little pop. And the back some really lovely texture and design.

For the white squares, I played around for a bit with how I wanted it to all come together. I originally explored the idea of having a meandering feathering motive throughout the quilt, but the “sense of order” side of me thought that would be too much along with the flowery Liberty fabric. 

After drawing out on paper a few different designs, I felt called to a cross-hatch motif that played up the overall design of the quilt but also gave it a bit of whimsy and lots of texture. 

With an erasable fabric marker, I drew on all the lines and quilted with my regular sewing foot attachment.

Then I went back to my FMQ ruler foot and went to work on filling in every second square. This was seriously so much fun!

What I hoped for when I started this quilt – other than something that would wrap this new little baby in love and warmth – was that it would look like the quilting all came together in a unified fashion. 

Last night I got to hand deliver the quilt – and snuggle my new little niece. Welcome little Tess! Your Uncle Matt and I can’t wait to spoil you and love you to the moon and back, just like we do with your sister, Nina.