Olivia the Pig Quilt

My little "A" is three- can't hardly believe it!  Where does the time go?  (Yes, I know every parent says that).  For an extra special birthday gift, I whipped up a simple, but cute quilt featuring her favorite character, Olivia.

So, I did a google search for some Olivia fabric and found that there were lots and lots of adorable prints and panels.  Some looking more like the Olivia from the original books by Ian Falconer and some looking like Olivia as she appears in the Nick Jr. cartoon (which is the Olivia above).  How annoying- all out of print.  I did end up getting my hands on some by finding a fabric panel on Etsy.

This was the panel that I was able to acquire.  I don't really know why Andover Fabrics made this panel with the green and blue- they aren't Olivia's colors.  (Her colors are red, white and black plus the few splashes of color that Nick Jr. has now added).  They had also made the same panel with pink and red borders, but of course, that wasn't to be found.

All of the other coordinating Olivia fabrics were out of stock just about everywhere online so I had to make do with other fabric.  I ended up using some black and white polka-dot fabric ("A" adores polka-dots.) and some plain red that I had in my fabric stash.  I then purchased a 2" wide red and white striped fabric (by Michael Miller) for the backing.

I cut the panel up- so I could eliminate the strange green and blue borders.  I ended up with the Olivia border from the top and bottom, which I pieced together, matching up the letters on the name.  Then I had 6 Olivia Character blocks.  I then cut out 6 blocks equal in size to the character blocks from the black and white polka-dot fabric.  I pieced the blocks together, inserting the Olivia border between the 1st and 2nd rows.  I then added a 3 inch red border around the outside.

It took me 2 afternoon naps and a couple 1-2 hour sewing sessions after the kiddos went to bed to get this pieced and quilted.  For the quilting, I just followed the lines of the backing- creating a "striped" look on the front".  I like this because it echos the stripes that Olivia wears.

I then hand stitched the binding during my lunch at work- only to complete on her birthday.  Luckily, we didn't open any presents until we all got home for the evening!

She likes it.  I like it.  I hope you like it.