With Baby V's impending arrival, I knew one of the things that I had to make was a quilt. But what design?! The result of a "probable girl" threw me an extra curve ball, as I essentially had to go gender neutral if I wanted it completed started before the baby arrived. So... I procrastinated. I poked around the Internet for some inspiration for which there were many ( like this, this), with the front runner being the Pow-Wow by Cluck Cluck Sew, but it still didn't have the "it factor" that I was looking for.
Inspiration finally struck back in May during H and my "babymoon" trip to Europe (yeah, oops, never blogged about that yet...). While we were in the UK visiting my family my 97 year old Grandma A showed off a new project she'd been involved in- a English paper piecing quilt for charity. After having fun chatting about fabric selection, hand sewing vs machine sewing etc. I didn't think much more about it after we left, but it was obviously brewing away in my head as a few days later the lightbulb went off and I formed a plan.
My Mom can paper piece.... my Grandma can paper piece.... and H's mother can sew...... how about making Baby V's quilt a family project?! I pitched the idea to the ladies on the family, and they were all game, success!
So, I looked online for some English paper piecing patterns that were not the typical hexagonal flower as I wanted to stick to a gender neutral design, and I stumbled across the jewel star design - a bit different, but not too complex for the beginner/older sewer.
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| from here |
After a feasibility check with my mom to make sure I was not asking too much from the others, I did a few test runs to see how hard/easy the design was, and if I liked the finished look in reality. And.... I did!
So I packaged up some instructions, paper templates, and pre-cut fabric and popped them in the mail to my Grandma, and dropped some more star "kits" off with my Mom.
And the virgin quilter, H's Mom, will be tackling her stars during her visit to Vancouver in October.
I have to say these things are perfect for a summer quilting project as they are small and portable, and are easy to pick up and put down.... suntanning and quilting, now that's a relaxing summer!
Now to decide if I go with the diamond or hexagon white spacers.... which do you prefer?
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layout images from here |
love your quilting project and no better motivation than upcoming baby arrival. I really like the pattern with the white space - it really makes the colours pop.
ReplyDeleteAll the best with baby!
This is going to be stunning! And such a great idea for a quilting bee ... you are creating and heirloom! I think I like the one with more negative space better ...
ReplyDeleteIk vind dat bij de tweede de kleuren meer tot z'n recht komen, meer voor een grotere oppervlakte. De eerste zoals het kussen dat reeds gemaakt is vind ik heel mooi. De baby zal kunnne baden in de sterretjes!
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