The Bug's Quilt
I know you have all been waiting with baited breath. So I thought I wouldn't keep you in suspense any more.
Here it is! I want to tell you about how it came to be- are you ready to listen to a convoluted history of how my brain works? If not, just look at the pretty pictures.
First- I love Alicia Paulson. You all know her, right? She makes all these beautiful things with little squares full of flowers and pink and purple. I always want to do one of these projects when she shows them but let's face it: one- I am not so girly, two- I live with a grown (very wonderful and sensitive but still a) man and a little boy who is showing me each and every day how little boy he is. Yesterday he bit into his first earthworm. Today he wanted to go find more. I did make that last quilt, which was very likely Alicia's fault. I love it too.
Two- I then found this basic quilt style done for boys. It was already sold when I found it and I didn't have the money anyway. I also knew that I needed a spread about the size of a standard twin size to work with E's full size on the floor bed. And that one lacked two major points for me: one- bugs and, two- orange.
Three- I knew that to get E to love this quilt it needed to be more than just quilting cottons. Much to my chagrin the boy loves all things minky. Like, adoringly loves them. I already had all the fabric except the orange embossed minky. E picked that out himself. There is also the shaggy teal ombre minky and the gray which is like moleskin or faux suede. My mother picked those and they had been made into something else that was never quite finished. When I put the elephant fabric up to them I knew we were on the right track.
Four- I cut out 300 4.5 x 4.5 squares. If you know me at all, you know this means I really do love my child beyond all sense. This is not my kind of project. I don't like doing 20 of the same thing much less 300.
My mother did a lot of the sewing back in October when we visited. I finished the strips slowly between school work and sewing orders. Eventually it was far enough along that E kept coming over and pulling it down and handing it to me. "Get to it Mama!" he seemed to be saying.
Luckily we had a trip to Oma's house already scheduled. We put it together and had half of it tied on the first nap. I worked on it a little more after bed time and my mother was finishing it when I got up the next morning. I know why people have quilt circles now.
I had intitially planned to do that line up the square thing but quickly realized it was a straight shot to sweary-land if I did. The minky is stretchy and the woven is (mostly) not. This it not a good combination for perfect corner work. I decided to stagger the strips and still it ended up really crazy. Sometimes even ending up matching perfect corners for a few blocks. I am glad I saw this problem ahead as not catching it would have resulted in much gnashing of teeth.
Anyway. He loves it. I love it. I am fairly sure Oma loves it. I hope you love it too.
Here it is! I want to tell you about how it came to be- are you ready to listen to a convoluted history of how my brain works? If not, just look at the pretty pictures.
First- I love Alicia Paulson. You all know her, right? She makes all these beautiful things with little squares full of flowers and pink and purple. I always want to do one of these projects when she shows them but let's face it: one- I am not so girly, two- I live with a grown (very wonderful and sensitive but still a) man and a little boy who is showing me each and every day how little boy he is. Yesterday he bit into his first earthworm. Today he wanted to go find more. I did make that last quilt, which was very likely Alicia's fault. I love it too.
Two- I then found this basic quilt style done for boys. It was already sold when I found it and I didn't have the money anyway. I also knew that I needed a spread about the size of a standard twin size to work with E's full size on the floor bed. And that one lacked two major points for me: one- bugs and, two- orange.
Three- I knew that to get E to love this quilt it needed to be more than just quilting cottons. Much to my chagrin the boy loves all things minky. Like, adoringly loves them. I already had all the fabric except the orange embossed minky. E picked that out himself. There is also the shaggy teal ombre minky and the gray which is like moleskin or faux suede. My mother picked those and they had been made into something else that was never quite finished. When I put the elephant fabric up to them I knew we were on the right track.
Four- I cut out 300 4.5 x 4.5 squares. If you know me at all, you know this means I really do love my child beyond all sense. This is not my kind of project. I don't like doing 20 of the same thing much less 300.
My mother did a lot of the sewing back in October when we visited. I finished the strips slowly between school work and sewing orders. Eventually it was far enough along that E kept coming over and pulling it down and handing it to me. "Get to it Mama!" he seemed to be saying.
Luckily we had a trip to Oma's house already scheduled. We put it together and had half of it tied on the first nap. I worked on it a little more after bed time and my mother was finishing it when I got up the next morning. I know why people have quilt circles now.
I had intitially planned to do that line up the square thing but quickly realized it was a straight shot to sweary-land if I did. The minky is stretchy and the woven is (mostly) not. This it not a good combination for perfect corner work. I decided to stagger the strips and still it ended up really crazy. Sometimes even ending up matching perfect corners for a few blocks. I am glad I saw this problem ahead as not catching it would have resulted in much gnashing of teeth.
Anyway. He loves it. I love it. I am fairly sure Oma loves it. I hope you love it too.
Comments
Earthworms, eh? I suppose we shouldn't let him outside while you two are here tomorrow. Who knows what he'll pull out of our yard!