Especially For Baby E.

Our younger daughter, known here in my little corner of Blogland as "Butterfly", told me that she wanted to make a baby quilt for her dear friends, Kim and Jeff, who will be having their first child, a baby boy, in August. She wanted to make a quilt that was not too babyish and that would carry this little boy on into his toddlerhood, and perhaps, beyond.  It is larger than the usual baby quilt, all the better for Mom and Baby E. to cuddle up together. Butterfly chose the pattern for the quilt and she and her handsome husband, the "Trooper", chose the fabrics. I LOVE that Trooper took an active part in the choices! ... 


When Butterfly and Trooper visited a few weeks ago, B. and I got the quilt cut out and we sewed the blocks together. We hit it hard and heavy, getting lots and lots accomplished with the two of us working together. That just warmed this mother's heart, she working on my Bernina and me working on Georgia, my Featherweight.

The finished quilt.
Mr. T held it up for the photo.  I cropped out his feet.

Pre-cropping, the quilt looked as if it could walk to Albuquerque in big ol' size 12's, all by itself.  

I just have to say, that Butterfly and Trooper chose fabulous fabrics! Here they are, pictured below. The off-white fabric was used as the setting fabric and the blue dot is the backing.

As an aside here, I learned to sew by watching my mother at her machine. I wanted to sew too, and began early in my childhood. Sewing has been one of my lifelong loves. I was making some of my own clothing by the time I was in Middle School. I don't recall that my mother ever "taught" me to sew. She set the example for me and was always there to guide me or to answer questions.  She pointed me in the right direction and set me on my path. What a perfect way for me to learn.


As the mother of two daughters, I thought that was the way for me to inspire my girls to sew, by letting them see me sew.  But somehow, it just didn't take.  I sewed and sewed and even sewed some more, but both of them seemed not to have inherited the sewing gene.  I even gave each of them their own machines, but neither of them were bitten by the sewing bug.  Don't get me wrong.  Both daughters are very creative, but they just don't sew much. So imagine my delight when Butterfly announced that she actually wanted to SEW A QUILT!  Maybe, just maybe, the bug has done it's thing.  


So Butterfly and I worked together on the quilt, but time ran out, their visit was short, we went as far as we could and I agreed to complete the quilt. I put the blocks together, then did the quilting. I finished up the binding this morning.  

Take a look at the piped binding pictured below.  I'm getting pretty good at this!  The striped binding was inspired by a quilt done by my friend, Carolyn D., who used a similar binding on one of her quilts. I love the way that the stripes add another design element.  

I am happy with the finished result and Butterfly is beyond happy!  She likes it so much that she is not so certain that she wants to give it away. She's anxious to make another quilt, this time, one for Trooper.  How cool is that?  We are already talking about fabric options.  She's lucky.  She has MANY more fabric resources available to her in The Big City than I do here in the Burg.


Baby E.'s quilt will be shipped off via FedEx tomorrow, in order to arrive in time for Kim's Baby Shower on Saturday, hosted by Butterfly and the Trooper. I hope that Kim and her dear Baby E. love this quilt as much as we do. 


I can't wait until Butterfly and I can work together on a quilt again.  Soon, hopefully.