A Quilt for Baby Matthew (#1)

I have a lot of friends having babies these days.  The title says "(#1)" because I have a good friend who had a Baby Matthew back in December, and while she is still waiting (so patiently) on her Matthew's quilt, I finished this one first.

This quilt is for the Baby Matthew who was recently born to my friend, Anne.  She is an avid quilter (see her gorgeous quilts here and here and here).  So while Anne is super sweet and easy-going, I really wanted to get this quilt "just right" for her.  I picked out the backing fabric first - giraffes by Ed Emberly:  

Then I picked out coordinating prints to make this quilt from Allison Harris's book, Growing Up Modern.

I just love this book.  This is the fourth project that I've completed from this book, and I'm about to start another!

For the quilting, I intended to do a cross-hatch, but after having problems with way too many puckers on the backing, I decided to quit butchering the poor thing and just leave it with one set of diagonal lines.

The binding is a new DS Quilts from JoAnn's.  I love it!  Of course...

And here's the back in full.  Please, try not to look too close at the puckers.  (Yikes!)

And best of all, here's Baby Matthew and his mama, Anne.  I LOVE how they are looking at each other here!  Congratulations, Anne and Bill!

And here he is again in the bassinet of his great-grandmother.  Isn't he just so perfect?!

Sleep tight, sweet baby...