Did you know about the NASA Astronomical Quilts! Block Challenge issued by Astronaut Karen Nyberg? She created a star quilt block while in space and she issued a challenge to quilters to create and submit star blocks. These blocks were combined into quilts that were displayed at International Quilt Festival in Houston.
I created 2 blocks - one was in response to a challenge by Pat Sloan and the other was a block that I had been thinking about making and sending in for the challenge.
When I got both blocks finished, I decided to send in the green one (I love green!) because I thought it would be different from most other blocks. I'm saving the red, white, and blue one for some other quilt some day.
I made another baby quilt! It seems that all my friends' kids are beginning to have kids of their own and that's why I've been making so many baby quilts.
This quilt was made for a sweet young lady that I have known for all but the first 2 years of her life. She and her husband had their first child, a little girl in October. I love to make quilts that have the same color scheme as the nursery so I went on a search for pink (bubble gum pink and hot pink), gray, navy, gold, and elephants. The elephants were easy - I had some of that cute Ed Emberley designed elephant fabric left from a quilt earlier in the year. The pinks weren't too hard to find, I left out the gold (way too hard to find the right shade), but the navy was a little trickier. When I found all my fabric I began to talk to a friend about the pattern that I planned to use. She also knows this young lady so I thought she would be helpful. Boy was I wrong! Since she "just loved" a quilt I made another friend's grandchild I began a search to find a similar pattern. (I don't really want to repeat patterns just yet). To make a long story shorter, the pattern we settled on didn't work with the fabrics that I had but I couldn't really tell until I got all the pieces cut.
I began experimenting with what I had, which was mostly 2 ½ inch squares.
Here's what I came up with .
I decided to use a variegated thread for the quilting - this way the quilting didn't jump out at you at any particular place on the front. I just did some leaves and flowers - I divided the quilt into quarters, drew a basic path to follow and then concentrated on just one section at a time. This really helped me not to get stuck or lost and miss a spot. In the center I did a stitch in the ditch diamond and a large elephant inside the diamond.
I'm working on another block of the month - it's one designed by Pat Sloan and it's called Vacation Time. I plan to give it to my father in law for his twin bed but I'll have to lengthen it a row to make it long enough. I also have a few UFOs that I'd like to finish, I've already got the pattern for a quilt for a friend who is hoping to have a baby this year, I need to make my son a quilt (fabric and pattern already picked out for that one) . . . you know the story.
Cindy at Quilt Doodle Designs has sent out the schedule for viewing 2014 Block of the Month quilts. I hope you'll take a little tour of all the quilts.
January 24th
January 25th
January 26th
I hope you have a good week! Come back on Jan 25 to see my finished block of the month from 2014.
Dee
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