Pink and Lilac Baby Quilt

Spoiler alert: If my nephew and his wife do not want to see the baby quilt for their daughter due in May they should read no further. I decided to post anyway- they may enjoy seeing their daughter's quilt coming together.

Since my color guidance form the expectant couple was pink and lilac and pale green I got a sense they desired something soft and little girlish. What better than hearts - and curvy hearts to boost. Gathering the lilac fabrics was fun and easy, the pink more of a challenge since I rejected fabrics that tinted toward coral. Here are some of the lilacs.

I was excited about the new technique and, once I did a couple hearts, launched off into mass production without looking further at the instructions. I had an overblown sense confidence in my grasp of the technique. For the large portion of the heart the heart color pieces get folded in half. For the smaller upper hump portions of the heart, the background pieces get folded in half. Grrrr… the number of times I mistakenly folded those small pink and lilac rectangles. This pattern is labeled easy enough for a beginner, and it is. A beginner would not be so danged cocky about what she was doing that she forged ahead and made the same mistake in triplicate, etc. I finally took all those little background squares and pressed them diagonally (and tediously) all at once so I would be constantly reminded.

So here are some sample heart tops and some sample heart bottoms.

And here they are paired to make the heart block.

Here is a small sample of them placed next to each other.

And here is the quilt on my design wall. The heart to the far upper left are my throwaways since I think the colors were too intense to the feel I wanted to evoke. The pinks had too much red and the lilac had too little grey.

Then the bias edges get folded back to make the hearts curvaceous. This is time consuming and takes care but is surprisingly repeatable. I found "That Purple Thang" tool great for just nudging the edges under the pressure foot to start the folded over curve of fabric. The upper row has not been curved but the bottom one has and I think it is worth the effort.

I plan to add a curvy border and here is its start. There will be semi-circles of the heart colors- like reverse scallops- to echo the lines of the hearts in the quilt main body.

The heart quilt will be smaller than the new arrival's older sister's quilt but that one needed to be larger because of the large scale baby animal print. You can see it here. This pink/lilac quilt is thirty-five 6" blocks in a 5 by 7 array but the border will add some size. I bought some bright green and pink fabric for the backing but have not decided if I want to use it. I has a directional stripe and I might want to keep the back more orientation non-specific.

The green might be too bright too for the soft looking front and it introduces a bit of coral instead of lilac. But the fabric is so cheery so we shall see…

   Completed projects:

1. Pastel crocheted afghan. Crocheted Pastels Afghan

Ongoing projects:

1. Doll quilt - have post on binding pending in drafts
2. Pink/lilac/green baby quilt for grand niece - on to border

No progress:

• Chicken quilt - made binding and picked backing
• Hexagon Mask Quilt - layout begun but overwhelming
• Fire and Ice Quilt- sitting in closet awaiting decision on backing
• Grinch Quilt - ripening on the design wall
• Pumpkin/Iris/Blossom square wall hanging- needs backing and binding

I want to start:

• Presents with Bows quilt kit
• The Ghastlies- strip quilt
• Rubber Duckies strip quilt

This week's stats:
     Completed  projects - 1 
     New projects - 0 
     Currently in progress - 2