A couple of years ago, they were all girls and I was frantically making another girl's quilt to replace the last one I had gifted.
A few months ago I knew of three babies on the way and I made three quilts. Two were definitely girly colours,
Emerging Butterflies Quilt, my own design
Rainbow Freckles Quilt, my first from the Scrap Republic Book by Emily Cier
The other one my first Freckles Quilt that I had made in an I Spy version.
I Spy Freckles Quilt
The first baby was born in April ............ a boy, so I Spy Freckles was gifted to little Edward.
Quickly I made another I Spy Freckles Quilt, this time with a pale blue background ( I had run out of Kona Aqua!).
Second baby was born. This time I was SURE it would be a girl. Wrong!!! So I Spy Freckles II was sent to baby Elijah along with a knitted blanket and two Crinkle squares.
But I still had my two girly quilts so I rather took my eye off the ball. After all I was busy creating an Owl Quilt and matching cushion and another cushion for my daughter's friend, Nina.
Then about a week ago I suddenly realised that the third baby which I was expected in July was going to be a boy. The only one I had known the sex beforehand, and I had no boy quilts left! Owl Quilt put on one side and I hurridly searched through my stash for fabrics. The Freckles were no problem as I have loads of novelty fabrics for fussy cutting interesting I Spy bubbles. But the background was more of a problem. Not enough aqua or blue left, even if I did some clever piecing as Emily Cier suggests in her book. How about yellow? I was certain I had enough of that colour. Oh no, again only small pieces, I had used the rest on another I Spy quilt I made for baby James (see what I mean about all boys being born?)
Now the hunt was really on as I am determined to try to make quilts from fabrics I already have. Ah yes, that large piece of Kona Ash may be OK. About a year ago Kona Ash kept popping up in quilts on Flickr and I thought it looked great so the next time I replenished my Kona cottons from the Fabric Shack I ordered 1.5 yards. However every time I thought of using it somehow it just wasn't the right fabric for that project, so it sat in the drawer. Until last week. I hadn't got time to order more Aqua, blue or yellow from America, so it was Kona Ash or nothing! I had fun fussy cutting the bubbles and used Heat and Bond for fusing onto the background Kona Ash. Looked OK. Onto my favourite part, hand blanket stitching using matching embroidery threads.
Now another dilemma. What backing did I have? Loads of big pieces of girly fabrics, pinks, flowers etc or pastel baby style ones which really wouldn't have gone with the modern look that the Ash background had created. Then I found a small roll of Moda 30s Playtime fabric, a remnant I had bought at a good price several years ago. Time after time I have auditioned this fabric for the backing of a baby quilt and everytime it has been" wrong". But this time it suddenly seemed just the one.
I decided to hand quilt with Perle cotton in the same Bubble style as I have used with all my previous Freckes Quilts but this time I chose a more dramatic Royal Blue colour ( still remembering the Diamond Jubilee celebrations perhaps?). I am really pleased with the result, as the bright blue stitching makes the I Spy bubbles "pop" and livens up the pale background.
Again I decided this quilt needed a striking binding and went for a raspberry red dot Amy Butler I had in my stash. The large spots complimented the Bubble designs going on in this quilt. So, all finished and I'm pleased with it. Mum- to -be is a modern sort of girl so I think this quilt will be to her liking...... hope so, anyway!
And here it is:
I Spy Bubbles Quilt
And this photo shows the backing fabric:
Now I can concentrate on making the second cushion for Nina as I want to hand all of her commission items over to her next weekend. So, I had better get cracking!
Thanks for stopping by!
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