Name Quilt Finish

Last Sunday, I was all done with my Ghosts Quilt and trying not to start anything big as I was awaiting the arrival of my Vintage Christmas by Lori Holt book. I remembered that my friend Mandy had just announced the birth of her first grandson, Jonah. Of course, I had no boy quilts already made in my stash! Time to come up with something quick. 

I made the letter blocks and the car block and cut out all the patchwork squares--all with some happy bright fabrics from my stash. The pattern for the Name Quilt can be found in Spelling Bee also by Lori Holt. I made mine one row wider to make it nearly square. I like bigger baby quilts that you can use to spread out on the floor for tummy time.

Yesterday, I pieced everything together and ran down to town to get a backing. I have decided that I prefer to back my baby quilts with luxuriously soft minky and Joann's had their minky 60% off. I selected the Nautical Royal Blue (there weren't many colors to choose from, but I loved this one!) and got 1.25 yards for $8.09 including tax. 

I pinned it this morning and quilted it grid style with my Pfaff's large wavy stitch. I decided to machine bind it to keep the wavy stitch pattern consistent. It just came out of the dryer and will be delivered to Grandma tomorrow afternoon.

On my way to Joann's, I stopped by my LQS to see if the Vintage Christmas book had arrived. It had, so now I can get started making my blocks for my sample. I am working with my LQS to offer this as a BOM for 2019. There are so many possibilities with this book!

Although the mint fabric Lori used is super retro 1950's, I prefer aqua/turquoise and some bling/silver/chrome. I grabbed these fabrics from the quilt shop. I want to show the BOM participants that you don't have to use the exact fabrics Lori used. I have always made her patterns using my own stash of fabrics and love how scrappy and bright my versions are.

 My daughter spent the last week traveling with her study group. They went to Brussels; she loved the beer, chocolate, and waffles there!

 Next, they flew over to Berlin.

 She loved Berlin and raved about all the history 

and artwork. Eight of the group left Berlin and flew to Barcelona for this weekend, she didn't send any photos of that yet, but she raved about the food there. She is flying back to London now and then will visit a friend in Copenhagen next weekend. I will just be slaving away in my classroom this week and enjoying not going to work in the dark!