Friday, August 26, 2011

daphne's garden

Baby Daphne's welcome to the world quilt is finally finished and delivered! The quilt was started before Daphne was born in April, and her mama and papa took the 'we want to be surprised' path when it came to if they wanted to know ahead of time the sex of the baby. This then led me down the path of selecting gender neutral fabrics which are bright and bold.

Once again I chose the adapted log cabin block and the main fabrics have garden themed prints.

It was a very bright sunny day when I hauled the quilt outside for the mandatory photos - so it may be difficult to see the detail of the fabrics.

The center fabric on the quilt back is a print which features leaves and ladybugs (to the left is Ms T holding her baby brother Bingo)




Thanks to Daphne's mama for the above photo of sweet, beautiful Daphne in her quilted garden.

Thursday, August 4, 2011

flight of fancy

This quilt is the adaptation of the log cabin block which is found in the book Quilt Inspirations from Africa by Kaye England and Mary Elizabeth Johnson. I love this block, over the years it has become one of my favorite blocks to use for baby and lap quilts. I just love its versatility.

This quilt was commissioned as a welcome to the world gift for a baby born into a family who loves to travel and loves all things Mexican! I named the quilt Folklorica Flight of Fancy - which is an homage to the parents interests and also plays on the baby's name - Phineas. When I learned the baby's name is Phineas, my mind immediately thought of Phineas Fogg, the main character in Jules Verne's novel Around the World in Eighty Days - another person fond of travel!

Along with the baby's full name and birthdate, there is a Ralph Waldo Emerson quote stitched on the outermost border.

Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not.

Since the front border is a busy print fabric, I stitched the words on the solid fabric on the back's border - this increases the reversible nature of the quilt. I can't believe this is the first quilt where I thought of doing this!