This summer, three of the ladies who sit within 25 feet of my cubicle are having babies. The mood swings and snack and potty breaks are kind of on overload right now, but that's another story.
One of the moms-to-be is a third-timer. She quietly went off to have her third son in summer, without much more than a few complaints about a tired back. We expect her back any time.
The other two are having respectively: twins in August and a boy in November. I'm working with the mom of twins on getting her paperwork caught up before she goes, because she could go any time. Both babies are over five pounds, and she's ready. If you've had a baby, you KNOW what I mean!!
So I'm sitting in my sewing studio thinking about baby quilts the other day. I blogged about making the jacks blocks a bit ago. I had lots of help from the girls and we made a big stack of blocks.
I sorted the blocks into 'boy' and 'girl' colors. Had enough for two boy quilts and one girl... must be my fixation with the color blue. Anyway, pulled from my stash some fabric for an inner border, and also made a second border of those four patch blocks I make with my 2 inch strip bin periodically. I have bags of those, sorted by color.
What to do for a final border?? The pink in the inner border of the girl's quilt wasn't quite true pink, it was more peachy than anything in my stash. So off to the fabric store -- I know, poor me! I found a great stripe from the Jennifer Chiavarini collection from the Union Quilters book. I also picked up a backing/binding fabric for each quilt.
The result is what I'm calling Fraternal Twins:
Same pattern, different fabrics. I apologize for the lighting, this was on my kitchen table and the patio doors are to the right... some of the whites look kind of yellow on Baby Girl, but we decided it might be because some of the white-on-white prints really reflected the light, and the solids not so much.
I gave them to the new mom early in the week. She cried. I asked why she was crying and she said 'Because I'm pregnant'... good enough! But she and her hubby really liked them. I'm hoping the babies do too!
These quilts were almost entirely from my stash, done at the last minute because I build those pieces as I go... I cut anything smaller than a fat quarter or straight quarter yard into units, either strips or squares. When I want to sew but have nothing in mind, or want to do mindless sewing, or I'm sewing with kids around, I make strip sets and four patches. Need a gift in a hurry? Pull out the ziplocs, find stuff and viola!! Instant or almost instant finish.
I did quilt this by machine, stitch in the ditch in the interior and on the edges of the borders. Boring but necessary... I feel quite virtuous for two finishes in one week.
Sew on!
