My first quilt, for the Pay

In July of 2009 my friend Abbey had her second baby, Bruce. A few months before that I made a small green and brown blanket and gave it to her at the baby shower. Her oldest daughter, Macey, promptly took it and claimed it as her own. So I decided to make a quilt for Macey so that she would return the blanket to her baby brother.
I bought four fabrics from the remnants section of Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft, cut them in to 6 by 8 rectangles and took them up to Fort Worth to get help from Aunt M and Grandmother. They explained to me the problem with the fabric I had chosen and then helped me rework my quilt design. I originally bought the pink polka dot that you see in the quilt, a yellow and white striped knit fabric, a green fleece fabric, and the cotton butterfly fabric that is in the quilt.
I learned that it doesn't work well to combine different types of fabric and that it is best to use all cotton fabric when quilting.

Aunt M has lots of bolts of fabric in her sewing room closet and she gave me the green polka dot fabric, the light pink swirl fabric,the dark purple backing, and the solid white. I bought batting and more of the butterfly fabric from the store and set aside my knit and fleece fabrics.

My aunt C does not sew but she has a great eye for color and layout. She and I laid the blocks on the floor and tried arranging them several different ways. We eventually ended up on these diagonal lines of color and I was very happy with that solution.

I had not planned on adding these three borders or the white sashing in between the blocks, but I am glad that my grandmother suggested it. She is a traditional quilter, as is Aunt M, and they love to add a border to a quilt. Or two or three borders.

Aunt M has an embroidery machine so I used it to embroider Macey's name on the lower right block of the quilt top.

I pieced the top with their help and supervision and then Aunt M taught me how to sandwich the quilt and baste it with what seemed like a thousand safety pins. She showed me how to stitch in the ditch and gave me some clear thread for the top and I used a dark purple for the bobbin thread. You can see my stitch in the ditch lines on the back of the quilt.

After that I learned how to square up the quilt, piece the binding together and sew it on to the front of the quilt and blind stitch the binding to the back of the quilt. Piecing the binding strips together was the most difficult part for me. You have to get them lined up just right and I was always off just a bit. Aunt M would look at it and say, "No, rip it out. Do it again." She said that so many times during my first few tries at piecing binding, but practice makes perfect and these days my binding looks pretty goo...moat of the time.

I think overall this project turned out well for my first try at making a quilt. I gave it to Macey for Christmas in 2009 and she LOVES it, even now two years later. She calls it her Jessica blanket and has it in bed with her for naps and night time.

I am not sure who "owns" the green and brown blanket these days, but it is about time for me to make a quilt for Bruce. There is a third baby in the family by now and he and Macey each have quilts from me, Bruce needs one too.

I am linking up with Quilt Story for Fabric Tuesday, go check out some other great projects made with fabric!