Quilt Progress

Okay, so I was hoping to be finished with my quilt by today.  Alas, the quilting bit has got me a little intimidated.  Here's what I have so far: the back (which I think came out well) and the front.  Plus the batting in between.  It's all pinned together, and I've also basted it, but I think it needs more basting.  I'm planning to bring it with me on my trip to Montana, where there are abundant, experienced quilters there who can help me.  My goal is not to do a lot of dense quilting.  I want the finished product to feel soft and fluffy, but I also don't want it to shift around.  So "Stitch-in-the-Ditch?"  Also, I'm thinking about hand-quilting; will it take too long?  I didn't end up finding the stripey binding that I was hoping for, but I found a lovely little freckle-dot (white dots on an espresso brown background) that I think will look great.  I'll be sure to post pictures of the final product!

 I left a little blank panel to the right of the owl and pussycat print where I can dedicate a blessing to Bria Rose, who is the little sweetie that will be getting this quilt.

New Project

Remember my last post when I said that I was going to make a quilt for my cousin's new baby?  Well I actually did it!  Okay, so I just did the top part, but I think that was my major hurdle. 
I've never made a quilt before, and I felt totally intimidated.  I did a little bit of questing online for different quilts that I thought were attractive and not too complicated (I needed to have it finished by this Wednesday).  I chose a strip quilt because I thought that I couldn't really mess it up too badly. 

Step one was digging out my favorite kid themed fabric prints.  Step two was deciding on a color pallette and then selecting prints within that pallete.  I chose Heather Ross' Swimming mermaids first, and I had a LOT of other prints by her, but I didn't think it made a cohesive theme to pair swimming mermaids with VW vans and bikes, so I nixed the overly terrestrial prints. 

I put in some fish, some sea horses, and some prints that reminded me of seaweed and beach blossoms.  The one print that might be a digression is the linen strip that depicts the main characters from the fairy tale, The Owl and the Pussycat.  But they're in a boat, and I love it, so there.I'm pretty happy with the way it came out.  Now I have to work on the back and put it all together.  I would love to bind it in a bold, high contrast stripe, (espresso brown and white?) but I don't have anything like that.  We'll see what I come up with; wish me luck!  Please excuse my photos for this post; the light is pretty bad right now because of all of the overcast. But you get the idea!

The First two Songs

Good Morning. I am so happy to say that I have begun work on the quilt! At first I felt daunted; I kept thinking about all of the small pieces that had to come together to make a whole and I was getting bogged down by the big picture. I spent lots of time looking at various quilt patterns, and finally decided to re-invent the wheel, yet again. Those of you who know me know that I struggle with following patterns of any kind: when cooking, I think, "Wouldn't this soup taste amazing with a little ground mustard?" When knitting I think, "I love the drape of this sweater, but wouldn't it be great with a shawl collar instead of a turtleneck?" And on and on and on.... So right out of the gate for this project I decided that I needed to just get started on the sewing and worry about the big picture later. I hope that you quilters aren't cringing too much. Well, it's my first quilt, and therefore a learning project for me. I think I learn more when I have to do it from scratch than if I follow a pattern anyhow. Hopefully it won't be too horrible for the recipient!

I thought about the project that this quilt is for: Kids that have experienced trauma or who are hospitalized with an illness. I wanted the quilt to have a sunny disposition while also be soothing. I wanted the pieces to be large enough that the child could spend a long time looking at it, too, in case they needed a distraction. And I really wanted to incoporate a circular shape because in a circle, no matter what, there is always something right side up. So I made a pattern and started cutting. As I was putting pieces together I thought, "This is a lot like making a mixed tape!" When making a mixed tape, I might have a general idea of the theme, or mood, but I would start with one song, and then find another song that I thought either carried the mood or transitioned to a new mood smoothly. Just like putting pieces of a quilt together, right? So here are my two circles: one in a red, and one in a blue. I will sew the circles onto squares and then put the squares together to make the blanket. I have no idea what color the squares will be; I haven't gotten to that part of the tape yet.