Sunday, January 6, 2013

My Yearly Quilt

Well, its winter and other then feeding our animals and playing in the snow with the kids (on their days off from school) I will be spending a lot more time indoors.  I try to keep myself entertained in the winter by crafting and sewing.  I'm starting off my winter "fix" with a quilt.  Most of my quilts I usually end up giving away as gifts to friends and family but this one is staying in my home.  
The first quilt I ever made was for my Hubby, then boyfriend.  I had sewed a few things before so he said I should make him a quilt and I guess looking to impress him I decided to give it a try.  I went to my Grandma and asked for a simple but not too simple pattern.  She set me up with a simple rectangle pattern, I think she called it a Split Rail pattern but I'm not sure if that's what it was called or not, now 10yrs later.  I did all the cutting and sewing with just advice from her and she also showed me the way to put it all together so it made a nice pattern.  I went and purchased all matching "manly" material and had extra of everything for just in case I messed up, and I did many times but even I was impressed with the end result.  I also realized how much I liked quilt making and have been making at least one quilt a year since then.  We still have that quilt today and it sees regular use, mostly by my son (4yrs) on his bed so it also see regular washing as well and it still looks the same as the day I finished it.
As for this year's quilt I planned on doing it just a little different.  I wanted to make a special quilt for my youngest daughter.  I decided rather then going out and purchasing new, perfectly matching material I had a "brilliant" idea of trying to make this quilt using only scraps of fabric left over from previous projects as my "scraps" pile is getting out of control.  Since I was planning on only making a twin sized it was going to be easy right.  Ha!  
Trying to make something that would not only match her personality but her love of the color PINK has proven to be a bit of a challenge.  I wanted to make something bright and happy like her but not something too old or babyish.  She is only 5 but I want her to be able to have it and the memory forever. 
I finally found a style that I was looking for on Pintrest but the picture had no link to it, thus no pattern.  I spent almost a whole day just making the pattern for it.  Simple triangles and squares right, sure but getting them the size I wanted took a bit of math and a bunch of time.  So my first attempt at making a quilt with out a pattern to use started out rough.  Using "scrap" material has proven to be just as rough.  Finding patters and colors that match up was easy but not having enough of each material, not so easy. 
I think I have finally come up with what I hope will turn out to be a refection of my daughter: a bright, happy, full of energy, girl.

This was just my template block and it doesn't really line up well but I wanted to give you an idea of the colors and pattern.  I have made most of the blocks now and just have to figure out how I want to put them all together; border, no border, quilt it or tie it off with knots the way my grandmother used to.  I will be sure to post an updated photo once I have finally finished it (might be spring then though).  I know she will love it and I she will know I made it with nothing but love for her.

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