Neufchâtel Modern Aztec Crib Quilt

Have you ever worked with a collection of fabric that just soothes your soul?

The colours and prints just help bring on that zen feeling of calmness and stillness.

That’s what the Neufchatel collection does for me.

The Modern Aztec Quilt Pattern is ready for instant download.

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Neufchâtel Fabric Collection

The florals are whimsical, not overly bold and graphic, but rather soft and delicate. Except for the dark turquoise, the pale blue, soft peach and white bring a quietness to the overall palette, while still bringing colour. It’s subtle. The dark turquoise adds some grounding without being stark. It’s a gorgeous combo that I’ve had the best time playing with.

I also love the contrast of these delicate fabrics paired with the geometrical design of the Modern Aztec quilt pattern. I love that push-pull effect between the two styles. It helps prevent one from being too overly dainty and the other too cold and rigid.

Quilt Piecing Adventure

This pretty would have been done in a flash had other projects not taken priority. But since there was no deadline for this one, she hung out on my design wall (here are tips to make your own) for quite a while. I’m certainly not complaining, as I adore having fun quilts to look at in my studio!

She finally got basted a couple of weeks ago on one of the hottest days of the summer. We’ve been going through heat waves here in Montreal and boy is it HOT. Ironing backings and then kneeling on the ground smoothing fabric and batting is hot work at the best of times but throw in a crazy amount of humidity and it’s one sticky mess! But I got through it and it felt so good to see her ready for some quilting.

Quilting Thread

My initial instinct was to go with a coloured thread; however, after pulling every single shade of blue, bluey-gray, and gray thread out of my stash, none seemed to be quite right. As I had them out, I realized a nice soft peach would have been perfect, but I didn’t have any of that either – ha! So, I went with my trusty white thread in 50wt. She never fails, which is why I buy this one by the cone 😉

Quilt Binding

After sharing a picture of the binding in my IG stories, I see you love this print as much as I do! It reminds me of shooting stars twinkling in the night, which just seems so fitting. And cute! Never underestimate the cute factor!

Now that I’ve got a few different hand-binding techniques in my repertoire, it always takes a moment of pause to consider which would be the best fit for the quilt. In the end, I opted for some big stitch hand quilting as I wanted a little extra detail and texture. You can never have too much texture, right?

Materials Featured

Here’s a full run down of the materials and tools I used to complete her:

• Modern Aztec Quilt Pattern – crib size
• Neufchâtel fabric collection designed by Cottonflower Studio for Camelot Fabrics
• White Kona Cotton solid
• 50wt Aurifil Thread in natural white for piecing and quilting
• White cotton batting
• Sewing Machine – read my pros and cons here
• Sewing machine needles
• Iron
• Wool pressing mat
• Cutting mat
• Rotary cutter
• Ruler – large
• Ruler – small
• Basting pins
• Kwik Klip
• Thimble
• Embroidery scissors
• Pins
• Sit ‘n Sew Pin cushion
• Seam ripper
• Needle for thread burying and hand stitching
• Thread gloss (optional)
• Hera marker

See all my favourite notions to quilt with here.

Lessons Learned

The other thing I learned from this project is just how quick baby and crib quilts are to make!

I’m normally making larger throw quilts, which requires moving furniture to get them basted, and days spent at the machine quilting her up. There was none of that with this one. The longest bit was doing the quilting in the center of the squares, which involved burying some threads. No biggy, really, especially now that I have my technique down pat (see all my thread-burying tips in this tutorial). Had I gone with an edge-to-edge design, it would have been that much quicker. But you know me and adding those design elements in. They’re always worth the time and effort 😉

This would make an amazing gift for a baby girl’s nursery. It’s soft and delicate, but without being too girly.

Your turn! Get the Modern Aztec Quilt Pattern in the shop and dive into a fun modern quilting adventure!

xo

Shannon

PS This is another project being crossed off my Q3 FAL list – wahooo! This quarter is turning out to be quite productive. Let’s hope it keeps up!

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