Victory's Quilt

Another quilt I finished last week. This one was for my sister and is the first big (non-baby) sized quilt I've been willing to part with yet. The benefit of being my sister is that she gets the first of everything.

I bought the fabric in January at that craft and hobby show I attended because it screamed "your sister!" to me. And it is really her colors... 

In fact, as I was making it, I learned that I didn't have enough fabric in the two "layer cakes" I'd bought to make the quilt, and though I supplemented with some of my own favorites that I keep on hand here, there still wasn't enough. Until my sister, pregnant with her first boy (after 3 girls) asked me to make a new baby sling for her with some fabric she bought. There just happened to be exactly enough scraps from her sling to fit into this perfectly coordinating quilt and to complete it. So fun!

Oh, and another fun thing to note is that there wasn't enough of anything to use for the binding. So the stash got a little raid and an old patterned satin got used (bias tape makers rock). That turned out really great and I think there will be more satin bindings in my future.

She got this quilt at her baby shower on Sunday - which happened to also be her birthday...

Picnic blanket therapy

Yesterday was a tough one. We "almost" got to pick up an abandoned newborn at the hospital and the high and low emotions that we rode between the first call and the final one which said, "nope, the hospital's paperwork got messed up, we are so sorry, not your baby this time" - well, it's almost inexplicable.

I texted J after the final news... "I'll be sewing tonight" ... And this is what I used to process my confusion and clear my head...

These were a bunch of fabrics given to me by my mother in law and my hubby's two grandmothers (excluding the back) many years ago. I made the 5x5 grid as a practice piece when i was learning to sew and dreaming about quilting years ago and recently found it, neglected. I pieced it into this 60x60 picnic quilt with the other vintage fabrics and used the whole project as "stippling practice." it had been sitting, pieced and pinned until now, waiting for the next step. Last night I cranked it out and sewed and sewed... I finished the self-binding today just as I learned some great news... My much blogged about pal, Christy, gave birth to Cade around midnight last night. (remember his quilt?)
Happy news, sewing, prayer and time are all some of my greatest, brightest ways to cope with this crazy crazy ride.