Friday, August 06, 2010

Quilt for Holly

Today, I started to make a quilt for a baby called Holly. She is the first child of a friend of my daughter, Sophie, and has been diagnosed with Spinal Muscular Atrophy. She will probably not live past 12 months. Having lost a child myself, I offered to make Holly a quilt. Her parents don't want a traditional pink frilly one, so I looked for inspiration for something different. In my studio, I came across these 4 appliqued fish blocks that I made with Electric Quilt and which I hand-stitched with blanket stitch, so I decided to make them the focus of the quilt. You can click on the photo for a closer look.
The blocks are 9", so I set about cutting 3 1/2" strips of plain hand dyed fabric to make nine patch blocks to go with them. These are the units I made up and then cut into strips.

Then I realised that my 9" fish blocks would only be 8 1/2" when sewn, while the nine patch blocks would be 9". Horrors! Fortunately I had some Nancy Crow "Boxes" fabric, so devised this cunning strip to run between the blocks to make them the correct size.
However, doing this meant I had to rethink the whole layout of the blocks, and I needed to make some (ahem) adjustments by including the Boxes fabric into the design.
Here are the blocks roughly laid out. I'm quite happy with this,so will go ahead over the weekend with sewing it together and adding a border. I'll aim to make it about 40" square. Watch this space!

PS I have pieces of the Nancy Crow fabric tied to my bag handles so I can easily identify my suitcase on baggage carousels - I figure hardly anyone else is likely to be doing the same, and it's distinctive. Thanks, Nancy!

10 comments:

loulee said...

Your fishies are great.

Teodo said...

Fantastic quilt and wonderful fishies.

during your long journey do you come in Italy too?

ciao ciao

verobirdie said...

I'm sure Holly will love the bright colors.
It must be very emotional for you to make this quilt. And my thoughts go to Holly and her family.

Janet said...

So bright and colorful!

Nora and James McDowell said...

The quilt and the love going with it a wonderful.

Julie said...

Your quilt is going to be beautiful Shirley. I love the fishes.

Diane N said...

It's a beautiful, happy quilt. I think it will brighten everyone's day and those are the cheeriest fish I've lately seen. Love the Nancy Crow fabric, too.

Rayna said...

This makes my heart sing, Shirley - something joyful for this baby and her parents in a heartbreaking situation.

Diane Perin said...

Charming quilt, and how lovely of you to give baby and parents that sweet gift.

dining room tables said...

That quilt is so cute. I am sure my kid is going to love it. She love thing with fish designs and she really love colors. I will this to her.