make a quilt for my baby

...doesn’t mean I’m not working on it.
The hard part is done, I only have to assemble it and finish the job. The padding is already here, but I want to buy some more needles for the sewing machine as I’m bound to break the odd one when sewing through layers of fabric and padding.
I only have to get a move on. Torin’s bed will be delivered next week.

I have now finished the first 4 blocks (left side of the picture) and have connected the first two rows of each block of the middle row. So technically, I’ve done more than half of the hard work, which is making pointy corners and sewing in proper straight lines to create the star effect. Not cutting off the points of the triangles is very difficult, as is creating a piece that can be ironed flat without creases in it, as some fabrics are flexible and stretchy, others are very static. I have to admit I am literally cutting corners here and there, and as much as I’d like it to come out perfect, I am also aware that I can’t be arsed opening seams over and over again if they are not 100%, so boohoo. It’s a baby quilt, and if Beanie is puking and spitting on it, he probably won’t care if the triangle he’s aiming for is perfect or not.

I have spent the better part of this evening arranging the stars. It’s a wild mix of colours, patterns and I love it!
It’s another one of my marvelous, eye-cancer causing mad oddities of quilt designs. I am in awe of my genious.
Seriously though, I really like the mix. The stars will be brought into context by at least one, if not, two fabrics which will frame them. I am contemplating in green or blue. I was going to use more of the yellow dress, but its pattern will probably be too overwhelming.
The back will be something soft, so my child will like the feel of it. The colour is secondary insofar as it will be the final outter frame of the quilt; the technique I am following works like that. I must stress that it’s not an actual real quilt, but ultimately it will be a patchwork, as the first two blankets I have made.

I have finished cutting out all the parts for the 12 stars. It was over 200!! This means that I can get rid of most of the swatches now, as I won’t need them in the near future. Now comes the best part: The arranging of the quilt! Tonight, I will spend time to lay out the whole of all the stars on the kitchen table and see how it would come together. It’s a wild mix of fabrics and mad patterns, especially since I have thrown in my “space dress” as well, a mini dress made up of a shiny blue fabric with grey balls/circles on different sizes. This is going to be so much fun!

I took a day off, yesterday, to recharge my battery, which was wonderful.
I spent 20 minutes on the net to pick a design, a simple quilt with 12 stars, 4 different ones, and arranged them on paper to play around with the designs and colours.
Then, I sorted out my two large curver boxes full of fabric left overs and picked the bits I will be using for the quilt. The basic colour scheme will be yellow-green-pink-blue on a white background. I noticed I didn’t have enough yellow fabrics, so I cut up an old spaghetti halter top and my 10-year-old “favourite” dress, see attached picture.
I’ve worn it to umpteen occasions, year in, year out. I have so many memories connected with this, from the day my dad picked it for me on a market in France, to the parties I wore it at, including a combo of the dress and rainpants over wellies at Glasto last year, and finally when it was on its last legs, I was only wearing it in the garden. It’s now falling apart at the seams, so why not recycle this fun fabric into a new piece of family memento?
So I will salvage as much as I can to use it as frame around the star blocks, but I also used a bit of the yellow fabric for 2 of the stars.
You can tell, I can’t wait to start sewing!