One of my favourite books from when my kids were little is Guess How Much I love You, I just love the last line of ‘I love you all the way to the moon and back’ so when I found out I would have another grandson, I knew which range of fabrics I would be using, especially as I’d recently seen a baby quilt panel with scenes from the book.

Baby Frankie arrived during the Spring Solstice (my son seems to go for solstice babies as Hugo was born during the summer solstice!) I already had the quilt half made, I just wanted to add his name and quilt it.

I had the usual frustrations with the panel which just included the six pictures, separated by a ‘sashing’. Of course the sashing strip at the side of the panel wasn’t wide enough to match the rest so I ended up buying more fabric, cutting up the panel and stitching sashing strips all round. I then add the side borders.

I measured the side border and worked out the size of letters I needed to spell his name, Frankie. I then drew out the letters on graph paper, traced it to bondaweb, remembering just in time that some of the letters would need reversing before cutting out the individual letters.

Once I was happy with the placement I could iron it all in place. I used the blanket stitch option on my sewing machine, it double stitches it all so it does make a nice neat edge.

I decided to try a different wadding to my usual Hobbs and bought Matildas Own which is an Australian brand. It feels a little thinner but it has made a lovely soft, cuddly quilt. I pieced the back with left over fabric and once it was sandwiched I quilted it with a simple meandering stitch. I still don’t get a perfect meander but I am getting better.

Once quilted I used a narrow stripe in white and taupe for the binding. I think I first used a striped binding on Hugo’s baby quilt and I do like the effect. I machine stitched it down using the quilting in the ditch foot which I’ve only just discovered in my sewing box!

As usual I hand stitched the name of the quilt using the shapes of the quilting as a guide. I called the quilt ‘Sew Much Love’