We're busy celebrating birthdays this month. Landon turned one on February 12th. Rylee turns two on March 13th. Caleb turned three on March 6th. Three grandchildren and their birthdays are all within a four-week period. We are a very fortunate bunch, indeed!
Last year I put together a youth bed-sized truck quilt for Caleb. Of course, as can happen with a two-year-old, he never got the hang of his race car bed and went right into a twin. The truck quilt is fine...just a bit short on one end! So this year, for Rylee's second birthday, I decided to make sure she'd have a blanket big enough for a twin bed -- and, yes, you guessed it -- she's going into a youth bed. At least that's the plan. The one good thing is she's going to outgrow that in time and her big-girl blanket will be waiting for her.
The quilt pattern came from the Scrappy Stew class I took last fall. I used all 1940s retro prints and a lot of pink for the background. What can I say? I waited a long time to have a little girl to put in pink...and her blanket certainly will attest to that.
After piecing the blocks and doing some diagonal machine quilting, I used my embroidery machine to put a butterfly in the center of each block -- 40 butterflies in all. Yes...I now know how the embroidery unit works. Practice makes perfect and those 40 butterflies gave me a lot of practice on positioning and, of course, troubleshooting when threads broke, et cetera.
Buying "just the right amount" of fabric is still a challenge. I'd be devastated to run short, so I generally have a bunch leftover. This time I used some of it to make her a matching pillowcase and a throw pillow for her dolly.
And the best part? The whole thing's finished and I still have a week until her party!!
Hmmmm, I wonder what else I'll come up with for her before next Saturday?
Jean
Quilting Memories, One Piece At A Time
Jean it's so beautiful and I love the butterflies! You know I do, since I picked up on them right away when I saw it in person. GREAT JOB!
Posted by: Donna Hustedde | March 09, 2010 at 08:24 PM
Hi Jean!! I haven't been to your site in a little while, so it really surprised me to see so much quilting. It's all so beautiful! But don't tell me you've given up stamping? I took a break from stamping for the past year, but I'm jumping back into it now. I hope things are well and the family is great. I'd love to hear how you are doing!
-Lauren
Posted by: Lauren Kay | May 03, 2010 at 03:47 PM
Beautiful work Jean. Your mom would be so proud of you:) Love them all. I don't know which one is my favorite.
Posted by: Kim | May 11, 2010 at 07:07 AM