It is rare that I get a chance to piece a quilt. But there are gifts for special ones that go out ‘in haste’ here & there.
This is for a friend’s first granddaughter that is due soon. A family friend found me via FB and asked if I and any of our group’s quilters would like to make a baby quilt. Sadly, our friend died 7 yrs ago and we thought it would be sweet to bless the daughter with quilts from her quilting friends as her mother would have been doing. I was the only one that sent a quilt. The baby’s room is painted a golden yellow with accents in navy, purple, and fuchsia.
I chose the accent colors from my stash but just could not find the right background fabric for this. I could drive 1 – 1 1/2 hrs each way to a modern quilt shop to try to find something which adds up to “take a day trip” with 3 hrs on the road, lunch out, etc. I could have looked online for awhile and ordered but then I wouldn’t have it in time. Or… I could dye my own! My SIL was here and I was asking her help with choosing dyes off my color chart. Nothing was quite right and I was also looking for yellow dyes in the storage drawers. There NOT on the chart but in my inventory, was pencil yellow. Yes! That was the color we wanted and I had bought that on a special – no longer made deal. Of course, now I love it and hope to get some more pencil yellow fabric from my amount of dye.
The next day I dyed an extra amount of fabric than my plan needed just to be sure I had enough. I was also making my own pattern so was just using my guesstimated amount of fabric needed. I used about a 1/2 strength of dye. I stirred the dye about every 15 mins for an hour to have it more of a ‘solid but not quite’ coloring. I was so excited as I think it came out perfect to what I wanted!
I cut the half-square triangles (HSTs) with my accuquilt Go! cutter. LOVE IT! I line up the fabrics that will be sewn together, right sides together, and they come out of the cutter ready to zip under the sewing machine.
Once I had all the HSTs sewn and pressed, I laid out part of the center design.
Sewed the top together…
And this also shows some of the quilting marks I made before I loaded it in my machine for quilting. I had guidelines for the circles and divisions of 8 or 4 per ring.
First the detail quilting in a variegated thread that stands out on the lighter fabrics.
The finished quilt – quilted, labeled, bound, & washed.
Close-up of a corner and you can see the circular designs. The background fill thread was a matching yellow and a finer size thread.
The back of the quilt. Once again, without going to buy the fabrics, I pieced the back from other fabrics in my stash. 🙂
I appliquéd the baby’s first initial and a heart, then pieced in the diagonal piece of fabric for an accent.
I had help from my family & friends on the label verse but I found it fitting since the mom has never met me. It was just a gift from God, with love from one of her mom’s quilting friends. Sent from Illinois to Mississippi.
The one who contacted me and the new mother were surprised at how well it matched the baby’s room. Yeah! I loved this quilt and had a hard time putting it in the box to ship away. It was a gift of love so I knew I needed to send it. It sounds like it was well received.
and sew on... 