One for the Grandbabies

    Last week, I finished Ashley's Journey to use in our grandkids' room at our house. It's currently on the full size bed we have in there. I decided to get some practice with half square triangles by making a scrappy crib size quilt for the baby bed in their room, too. After all, practice is the only way to get better at quilting!!

    I pulled out all my scraps and sorted by color. Also purchased a yard of solid white to go along with a few white-on-white scraps I had. I cut eighteen 4 inch squares from each of the following basic colors: white, purple, blue, green, yellow, orange and red. Paired a white with each colored print. I drew a line on the diagonal and sewed a quarter inch seam allowance on either side of my line, then cut on the line with my rotary cutter. After trimming to square them up, I ended up with 216 half-square-triangle blocks. Here's a shot of how I arranged them to make my crib quilt.  There are almost an infinite number of ways to put the squares together. I tried various zig zag patterns and ended up with diamonds, bordered by a jagged rainbow edge.

    I learned several things while making my placemats a few weeks ago. Such as, it's a good idea to press my batting. It's a great idea to tape everything down to make sure it stays smooth in order to pin-baste. I learned a few new things while working on this crib quilt. Like, the spot where four HST come together is a really thick seam. And, it works best if you press seams in opposite directions when you're piecing a column, so that when you're putting them together you can "nest" the seams--making it much more even. Probably could've learned those things by reading some before I started ... but, it's a process, remember? = )

    Here's my pieced top, taped down and in the process of being pin-basted. You might notice that I eliminated a column of triangles (went from 6 to 5). I had a scrap of batting that fit with 5 columns and didn't fit with 6. So ... I eliminated the row in order to eliminate a trip to the fabric store to get more batting!

    I'm using a yellow gingham for the back, and hand quilting with yellow thread. It's looking really good and I've just got a little bit to do. I should have it finished by the end of the week! Here's a picture of me (and Cyrus) working on the hand-quilting. (Note: my post-chemo hair is coming in nicely, and I think it may end up being the same color as the hair that fell out. That's a good thing!)

    I've linked this post to Fabric Tuesday on Quiltstory!