The Second Biggest Project

Yay! It's finished. I am so happy that finally I found the way of putting all the economy blocks I made at the beginning of this year together. It's one of those projects that you are not sure about until the very last minute, when you put all the needles and scissors down, spread it in front of you and go... I love it! I really do! A baby quilt and a small pillow.

The economy blocks were made with Belle & Boo fabric Pirate Games. While I was sewing them, I really enjoyed the process and thought it would be so easy to put them together in a small quilt. But once all of them were finished, I didn't really like the way the dotty fabric was overpowering the pretty drawings of little boys in the middle. So I just left the block. I kept thinking and playing around with different prints but none of the combinations worked for me. Solid sky blue fabric made the quilt look really blue - dark and sad, the same happened with the lavender one. Too much of pattern around caused the prettiness of Belle & Boo fabric get lost.

A couple of weeks ago I thought it was enough, I had to tick this item on my To-Do list. I took some blocks and went to a fabric store. I have no idea how much time I spent there but definitely more than two hours, I got stuck, really stuck. I couldn't decide. Not many prints looked nice together with my blocks. If I chose something with a large pattern, like anchors for example, the boys got immediately lost. If I chose some bright colours, the blocks looked too dark, if the fabric was pale, the blocks lost their colour as well. It was not easy. I almost gave up.

Until I came across this Posy fabric by Aneela Hoey and no matter how many loops I walked around the shelves trying to find something else, I kept coming back to this print over and over again. I even sent a photo of it to my Dear Husband while he was at work. We both liked it. I bought it and started making the quilt. I played with the blocks placing them in different ways and consulted my Dear Husband and Not So Little Boy many times along the way. After a few more hours we all settled down on a very simple, symmetrical pattern. Nine blocks arranged in rows of three about 4" apart.

Update: the weather is quite gloomy and wet today, the same is expected for the next few days. I tried my best taking a better photo of the whole quilt but it's not working, so I am just going to leave it as it is. The quilt is a bit crinkly after washing, I think this adds to the "handmade" look.

The back of the quilt is made with the same Posy fabric, it's so soft and cuddly. The back of the pillow is sky blue, so as the binding on both the quilt and the pillow. Some zig-zag quilting around the edge of the quilt and pillow, a small label and it's all done.

While working on this quilt, I kept thinking that even though I was enjoying this I still had to fight the urge to put it away and give it up, it was too big and it seemed that the finish line was too far away and nothing worked together. Why I felt that way? I think because I am not really a quilter, I am someone who mostly enjoys small and quick projects that can be done in a few hours and not a few weeks or even months. But now looking at this quilt, it makes me feel like making yet another one. Funny, isn't it? :-) I have two blocks left, I am still thinking what else to make with them. Larisa xox