Blake's Vintage Jungle quilt

When I attended the baby shower where I gave the Knot Dress, another friend had made the lucky baby a quilt using this pattern: Vintage Baby quilt by Kati Cupcake. I had another baby gift to make and knew I wanted to try it.This gift would be for my cousin James' baby boy-to-be. I knew the nursury was mostly blue and brown with jungle animals. I ordered a fat quarter bundle called Nutty Acorn by Timeless Treasures: I added a cute jungle animal scatter print that used the same colors. I was soooo tempted to add that cute ruffle as per the pattern, but left it off to save fabric and to "preserve" the masculinity of the quilt. I'm definitely going to go for it next time.
The other big news with this quilt is that I free-motion quilted for the first time. I was thrilled to learn that my basic but trusty Kenmore machine actually COULD be fitted with a open-toe darning foot. I was so nervous--and probably ripped out half a spool's worth of thread. The stippling is far from perfect (lots of sharp angles and crossovers), but the overall effect was still achieved--YAY!!!
I was terribly slow, and boy was it strenuous! I had chest pains for a week after I finished it, LOL. Half of the strain of quilting it came from the stress of the free-form design. Not having a set pattern to follow is WAY out of my comfort zone. I had to stare at each little section sitting on my machine, imagining the flow and direction I would take before I could even take a stitch. I hope I can improve, because I just adore the crinkly finished look.

One of the things I admire most about the quilters whose blogs I haunt (see the list at the right) are their innovative pieced backs. I made sure to add some interesting blocks from the front and a strip of that stripe that ties in all the colors. I like that the back isn't just solid (though I love that color green that I was able to match from my local quilt shop!). It is bound in a great brown dot.
The strip on the back even lines up with the thin strip on the front!

I'm super happy with the end result. The finished size of the top was 36.5x 42.5, and it lost a couple of inches each way once it was quilted. It didn't shrink much more after being washed and dried, but did soften up quite a bit. I used that yummy soft bamboo batting. I hope Baby Blake will enjoy it!