I decided to use a selection of plains in dark and light shades for the front, with some more of the amazing cat fabric on the back. All of that would be tied together with thin black and white striped binding:

I decide to cut 6 inch squares, and worked out how many I needed of each shade. I love the colours so I did play around with them once I had cut them out, like this:

After I’d finished taking photos, I then laid out the pieces on the floor, playing around with placement a little.

Now for the assembly! I was glad that I took a photo of the placement – to be honest, I would have just got so confused about without it. Although I did sew a couple the wrong way – there’s hardly ever a project I make without any unpicking! I started by sewing the triangles of the same colour together before pressing and trimming the corners. Our duet piano stool came in very handy at this point for keeping the squares in row order!

I then laid each one on the floor again before working out which squares to sew together. At first I (foolishly) went along a line from left to right, which was absolutely fine until I joined two rows together, and the rows had gone out of synch. So that’s where the unpicking came in… I realised that the easiest way was to work in two blocks of 4 squares and a block of 6, which could then be joined together. This is what I did on the first quilt I made, so why I felt the need to switch to a different, untested method I have no idea! At least I know now that my system works for me I pressed the seams at each point of sewing blocks together, so that the whole thing would lay flat.

It took a long time to put the patchwork together, but I was so pleased with how it turned out! Yes, there are a few wonky bits, but you have to look closely to see them I think, and the overall effect is just what I wanted. The next step always makes me a bit nervous once I’m happy with the patchwork – I don’t want to make a mess with the quilting!

To quilt I did what I now know is called quilting ‘in the ditch’, which is basically where you sew along the seams. I just did this on the straight lines (i.e. not the diagonals) using white thread. On the odd occasion the lines weren’t quite matching, so I just had to stop to tie the ends and line it all up again! I’m not sure if you need to use a special foot for this really, but because it wasn’t too thick and I was just sewing straight lines, I just used my normal foot.

Thankfully, other than a few minor slips, I did ok! I only just had enough wadding and backing fabric here, and in one corner the backing had moved up a little whilst sewing, so I’d need to make sure that the binding would cover it. I made my own binding from this super black and white stripes fabric, which contrasts so well with the bright, bold colours. I cut 2 inch strips and then pressed back about half a centimetre on each side. I know I’m mixing up my imperial and metric here, but that’s how I roll! I machine stitched the binding to the front of the quilt and then hand stitched the back – this bit was done with the help of a few episodes of Murder, She Wrote which is a guilty pleasure of mine…don’t judge me!

I must admit that I still don’t really know how to finish off corners…if anyone has any tips, they would be gratefully received! I’m pleased that I managed to make these ones look neat though. And I also made a label to mark the occasion for the bottom corner.

Hopefully Baby will be really happy playing on their mat, with as many friends as can fit on it!

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Before you begin, you’ll need to wash any fabric that you’re using to make sure that the colours don’t run.

You will need

A long-sleeved bodysuit (I used these 6-9 month size from Marks and Spencer)
Some fabric for the ukulele body
Some brown fabric for the ukulele neck
Some pattern paper (or baking parchment does the job nicely too!)
A pencil
Some sharp fabric scissors
Pins, needle and matching thread
Ukulele baby bodysuit templates – these are based on a soprano size uke, so use the inner lines on the templates for the 6-9 month size suit

Step 1

Trace the templates onto your pattern paper, and then cut out each piece of fabric.

Step 2

Carefully pin the pieces onto the bodysuit as shown. You could glue them on first if you like – I didn’t do that, but it would help to keep them secure as you sew.

Step 3

Using matching thread and small stitches, sew the body of the ukulele onto the bodysuit. It’s easiest to start where it meets the neck, so that you can secure both pieces of fabric.

Step 4

Sew the smaller pieces of fabric on using brown thread and the same small stitches.

Step 5

Now you need to sew the ukulele neck along the arm – this is quite tricky because it is so small! Try to keep your stitches small if possible.

Step 6

Measure a small piece of the coloured fabric to make the final piece of ukulele – I actually wasn’t planning on adding this, but had to when my brown fabric didn’t quite reach the end of the sleeve! Pin it on and fold over the edge before sewing as before, making sure you have secured it on the inside.

And that’s it – ta-dah!

If you’re feeling adventurous, you could embroider the strings on – I had planned on doing this, but actually liked the look of it without them when I had finished. Here’s to happy ukulele babies! :-)[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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