Tuesday, September 13, 2011

baby quilt solutions :)

Hooray!  Things are looking up in Quilt Land today.

I am so grateful for all the comments and suggestions offered yesterday, when I was depressed about the rainbow geese baby quilt-in-progress.  Judith gave me an out (one I had been considering very seriously): put it aside, buy a baby gift, and return to this project when less stressed.  I really appreciated that...but I realized that I still had some fight in me.

Here's the play-by-play for anyone who happens to be interested :)

I appealed to my 14-year-old daughter Chloe, whose interest in my sewing waxes and wanes -- but luckily she was in a responsive mood -- and together we came up with the idea of injecting some lightness into the quilt top by adding strips of bright white. I just couldn't face replacing all of the gray, and Chloe insisted that the gray was fine ("It's fine, Mom."  You would need to know her to know how that sounds.  It's pretty persuasive). 

I decided to put off the unpicking and re-sewing of the blue-indigo-violet strips until I was certain the new arrangement would make me happy.  So last night I started assembling red-orange-yellow-green.  I liked it!

This morning I unpicked the old strips while little Frida watched Timmy Time.  Today I get to work from home, so once everyone was out the door, I gave myself permission to spend 90 minutes sewing. 

Michelle had suggested alternating the directions of the strips of geese to give the quilt top a little more whimsy...I love that idea, and had actually experimented with it when I was first assembling the blue-indigo-violet strips.  But it had looked a bit dizzying at that point.  NOW -- with the addition of some bright white 2.5" sashing between the lines of geese, I LOVE IT!!


Thanks again for the supportive and helpful input, everyone!  I look forward to posting  pics of a finished quilt-top and a finished baby quilt very soon.


[Oh yes, and on the Ramone front: this morning he accepted 10 minutes of full-on cheek scratching, head rubbing and shoulder petting.  He even rolled onto his back.  Now we just want to hear him purr!]

7 comments:

Annabella said...

I.LOVE.IT

Judith, Belfast said...

This looks so fab, and what a difference a few strips can make. Great choice! Jxo

Michelle said...

yea!! i love it! now i'm gonna have to make a baby quilt like this some day!

LizA. said...

What a great save. I think you might have a future quilter there--smart girl. I also think you need some curves in the quilting, maybe freehand Baptist Fans. Here's a good how-to: http://www.maryquilts.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Freehand-Baptist-Fans-by-Machine.pdf

Archie The Wonder Dog said...

Love it - the narrow sashing is inspired!

Prof. S (the enchanted bobbin) said...

Thank you all!

And great idea about the quilting, Liz...you have definitely planted a little seed, and it would be really good for me to break out of my meandering FMQ comfort zone!

Sheila said...

I love the way the colours flow from side to side.