It's Okay to Try Something Different

It's so much fun making a baby quilt, especially if you don't overthink things. I dove into this one with a jelly roll that was given to me oh, sometime last year? The colors are so bright and fun looking. I decided to slam the {I-hate-one-line-fabric quilts} part of my brain off and just go for it. Jump in and just see what might happen!

Jelly Roll quilt

I trolled the Net for jelly roll patterns, almost bought a pattern, and then thought, 'why'? I love 9-patch blocks, why not start there? After some quick lay-out auditions, I settled with the rows of blocks idea. They were supposed to be vertical instead of horizontal but well, these things happen when you're in a good groove and not firing on all cylinders. Something about working late into the evening.

Anyway, in the hunt for a great, cohesive looking background fabric {everything I had was busy, busy} I somehow ended up with this cheddar low-key print. It's not quite as solid as the pictures make it appear, but cheddar? For a baby quilt? I know, I know. But the thing is, it absolutely made the all the other colors 'pop' and sparkle like nobody's business. Nothing else even came close. How to pass that up? And now I'm squirming over the odd colors of this quilt even as I'm doing the little victory dance over how much I really, really like the finished product.

Simple organic straight line quilting...

So now you know why I never, ever make quilts for other people. My deal is --make them for myself and then occasionally the finished quilt will get gifted to a likely suspect. Uh huh. No need for squirming/fretting or wringing my hands over whether or not that 'someone' will actually like it, because hey! I was just trying to please myself.*wink

Trying to balance the color

Don't you just love how quickly a quilt can go from strips of fabric {above} to a lovely finished product though? The jelly roll thing is definitely a great beginning for certain 'wanna make in a hurry' types of quilts. No hard strain-the-brain measuring stuff at all. No dumping all the stash totes out and lamenting the loss of enough of one certain piece of fabric.... I am starting to see the appeal, yes indeedy and will hold this idea in reserve for future baby quilts. Lots of leftover blocks too. Probably enough for the beginnings of another baby quilt sometime in the future? I like that a lot.

In the meantime, I grabbed up three un-used blocks and made a fast little pillow for the older sister. Threw some of that leftover Minky {from my first ever Minky receiving blanket!} onto the back to make it super soft and also quick-stitched a sweet little heart on the front. Big Sis. needs some lovin' too and hopefully this will make her feel a little less left out.

Enough blocks for a pillow and my first Minky blanket

There's also another finish in the works recently, just forgot to post a picture. My vintage block wall hanging is done! I hand stitched the entire thing with lovely Perle cotton in about two weeks or so. Nothing too complicated so I'm not going to show a close up. It's lovely and sweet, a great little memory of our trip to Oklahoma in 2014 {middle block was bought on the trip}. And it makes me want to do some more medallion work. Which is good because I have two more medallion projects currently in the works. It just never ends does it?

Vintage block wall hanging finished!

The good picture thing is a total loss anyway. My daughter says I'm hopeless at taking pics and winces at everything that gets posted around here. Boohoo. So sue me,  I'm a quilter, not a photographer! This sweet little wall hanging is currently hanging on a wall in our upstairs bathroom. Trying to make that one look more girly these days-- a little less 'boys dorm meets mounds of unwashed laundry'.....