For Lela

2012 may go down as The Year of the Baby Quilt.    This one's for Lela, a friend from work.

quilt is even nicer when juxtaposed
against forsythia and adorable husband.

This quilt was inspired by a beautiful one that I found on Helen's flickr page.    It's my 3rd baby quilt of the year.   (2011 boasted zero baby quilts, by contrast.)

I pieced this top during The Boston Modern Quilt Guild retreat in Kennebunkport, Maine, in March.   It was the perfect smallish piecing project to have with me for the weekend, especially since laying it out took a while and it was handy to have other eyeballs around to opine on the arrangement!

I think the other ladies didn't totally know what I was up to with all the squares, at first.

It took for freaking ever to get this far,
and still it looked like nothing!!

Thankfully there were walls and walls of felt, because it took me forever to get the placement finalized, which had to be done prior to sewing anything.  There was lots of backing up and walking forward.   Also, squinting, rearranging, and rearranging back.   I kept moving to label something, only to have my self-generated air gusts blast an entire row off the wall.  Doh!  But slowly, it took shape:

see?  something begins to emerge.

Helen's original quilt also has a fade-out effect, which was what I loved most.

I wanted to replicate the idea in more overtly "boy" tones, since my friend Lela is expecting a little dude.   Aside from the backing, everything here was from stash.  The field is a blue chambray fabric (Carolina?).   The colors include some Joel Dewberry acorns and yellow woodgrain, a few konas (ash and medium gray), a few of the muted Denyse Schmidt greens and blues from her Joann's line, and a Momo blue-on-white dot from It's a Hoot.  Plus just some random stuff from the scrap heap.

The quilt is bound with a white on grey dot fabric (also Momo) and backed in a yellow-on-green dot fabric I found at Marden's in Sanford, Maine, on the way home from retreat.  It was something like $2.99/yard and is ultra-soft when washed.

I did a semi-directional, meandering, semi-square stipple and left the triangles unquilted.

Overall, I really like this quilt.   I was sad to see it go, but am excited to see the little man on it - Lela's due any minute!