This baby quilt is made entirely from my stash and it isn't real "babyish." I decided to use the fabric in the border because the mom & dad have 3 dogs and at least 1 cat, so I know they are animal lovers. I bought the fabrics several years ago and wanted to use it. I had no idea if it would turn out or if I would like it. When it was ready for quilting, I decided to do an overall design and I had this clam shell stencil - which I had never used. I started tracing it with a tracing pencil and after tracing it once, my hands were tired and I didn't want to do the whole quilt that way. So I decided to go out and purchase a "quilt pounce." The top of the quilt is quite busy, and the quilt pounce chalk didn't really show up too well, but at least it was easier than using a pencil. While doing the free motion machine quilting, I remembered what Bonnie Hunter said in her 6/10/08 blog post. She was quilting by hand on a particular quilt and she found it easier to quilt it from the back. Since the back of the baby quilt is predominantly black (an odd color for a baby quilt), the chalk showed up a lot better and I finished it from the back.
Here's the back view. It has cats scattered on black. The binding and green in the top of the quilt is balls of yarn and goes with the backing fabric.
Don't look too closely at the quilting job. I'm about to give up on doing free motion quilting. This was a pretty simple quilt pattern, but I still had a hard time staying on the lines. 
Here's a close-up of the border. This is my favorite part of the quilt. I love the pet shop! This is the first time I have ever done a mitered border.
So, for better or worse, this is the shower quilt. I guess I'm somewhat satisfied with it and hope she likes it. It certainly is a baby quilt made to be used, dragged and played on.
