Sunday, March 20, 2016

A Quilt for My Goddaughter

I am lucky to have several best friends--as Mindy says on The Mindy Project, "Best friend isn't a person... it's a tier!"--but one of the very best is my girl Wendy, who I've known since middle school. I was honored when she asked me to be the Godmother of her little girl. Reese Autumn was born on November 15th and she's Wendy's mini-me!

Reese's parents and big brother love penguins, and when I saw Maude Asbury's "Snow Day" line of fabric at The Whale's Tail Quilt Shop in Ketchikan, Alaska while on vacation, I knew it would be perfect. I don't often see peach and aqua together and it was a stunning combination without being overly girly. I picked out some blender fabrics from Lizzie House (one of my favorites!), Bonnie Christine, and Jeni Baker. I also surprised myself by using more solids than I had intended, some of which I had in my stash.

Laying out the blocks!
I decided to go with a simple framed block pattern to highlight the uber-cute penguins, polar bears, and walruses. The blocks were about 10 inches square. The block frames took a while to piece together -- longer than they should have -- but I like the effect of the corner squares. To save some time, I used pre-cut strips for the sashing. (Seriously, Kona's jelly rolls have probably added hours to my life!) The quilt is large for a baby quilt and would actually make a decent-sized lap quilt.

The finished product, already washed and dried (so a little crinkly).

The quilting is a straight line grid, echoing the blocks. I thought about getting fancier, but I didn't want to overshadow the patterns on the fabric.

Polar Bear and Cub

Guys, these penguins are wearing bow-ties. So cute!

I had lots of leftover prints for the back, so I pieced together a few rows of bricks and used this excellent geometric print for the large pieces. (I forget where it was from, but I know the color is called "glacier," so it seemed like a good fit!)

The back!

I like the back almost as much as the front.

My embroidered John Hancock

Little Reese is growing by the minute and I'm excited for her to spot all of the adorable animals in her new quilt!

2 comments:

  1. It's beautiful, Kym! I really love the color scheme. And the pieced back looks awesome and showcases the prints nicely.

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    1. Thanks, Lindsay! This one was a hard one to give away, but I get to visit it often!

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