[Kinder Quilt] Finished

I am not completely out of my quilt-funk, but I am feeling more quilt-y lately. I appreciate the kind comments and encouraging feedback from my last post. I truly feel like quilting is my ART and, like most artists, my desire to create ART waxes and wanes. I am comforted knowing that my mojo will be back.

Surprisingly, I have a finish to report. Who would have thunk?!

Before I post any pictures I have to apologize for the quality of the photos. I finished this quilt so close to my deadline that it was still slightly damp from washing it when the recipient received it. So, I had no time to take pictures prior to gifting it. These pictures were taken in a windowless fluorescent-filled-light classroom.

I mentioned in my last post that I was putting together a baby quilt for my oldest daughter’s kindergarten teacher, Mrs. H. Prior to school starting, we found out Mrs. H was nine months pregnant. After that, it did not take long for me to come up with the idea to have the students help make a quilt for their teacher. Mrs. H had her baby right after school started and she just returned from maternity leave at the end of last month.

To personalize the quilt, I had the kids write their name on a pink or grey fabric square and I pieced those into the quilt top. I wanted the name blocks to blend into the quilt design (if you squint your eyes, they do!).

For my fabrics, I started with the Feather colorway of Red Letter Day and added other coordinating prints. I really like how the various fabrics work together. And I think the themes in the fabrics are appropriate for a kindergarten teacher: scissors, award ribbons (for the positive reinforcement required in the classroom setting), big ducks and little ducks (a teacher and her students), and text.

Interestingly, I would not have have used these fabrics together a year ago.

I’ve discovered that I inadvertently do something new with each quilt I make. With this quilt, several things happened:

• I explored fabric selection beyond a single collection AND
• I used fabric that I previously thought was too precious to cut into unless I had the *perfect* recipient and quilt design in mind AND
• I did not try to find the print I was missing from the Feather colorway.

How ’bout that… I’m maturing as a quilter!

For the back of the quilt, I had enough fabric that I didn’t have to piece it, but I needed to incorporate a light grey strip so I had a place for my labels.

I stamped all of the label information using a variety of stamps. I used my new stamp for the date and to provide more details in the ‘made by’ area.

I straight-line quilted in a horizontal-vertical grid and then diagonally through the non-name squares. I bound the quilt in the pink/grey stripe from RLD but didn’t get a close-up shot of that in my haste to get these shots.

Another project completed, many more to tackle!

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