Sleepy Sloths

I've been working on this one awhile, possibly procrastinating because it's just so cute to look at. But now it's complete and has gone off to live at it's new home.

I used Elizabeth Hartman's Sleepy Sloth pattern and altered the layout a little to suit me - I wanted both sloths to be hanging out on the same tree. This quilt is for a baby boy so I was a little worried at first that the body fabric might have too many girly designs but it turned out just right. This was my last bits of the Whimsicol print from Jeni Baker's Nordika line for Art Gallery Fabrics a few years ago.

Quilting this was a lot of fun and was all done with Aurifil on my Juki 2010. The tree definitely needed a bark-like motif and I knew I wanted some type of leaves in the background. Flipping through Christina Cameli's Step-by-Step Free Motion Quilting, I found several designs that would work and this is the one I settled on.

The sloths themselves were a little harder. I thought about trying to make it look like fur but that seemed like it might get complicated. Instead, I went with the swirls I've been practicing a la Vicki and Angela. I do love a good swirl. The backing is from Blueberry Park by Karen Lewis.

I think they all work pretty well together in the end. Plus, all that texture will be fun for tiny hands. It's now washed, dried, crinkled, and gifted!