Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Quilting Dreams

On Sunday, I headed to my Jo-Ann's store to find fabric for making our baby girl a quilt. I had some ideas in my head as to the "look" I was going for. I know I want to decorate her room in a classic, vintage-ish, somewhat floral theme. The walls will likely be a light pink. I have been collecting vintage hankies for several years hoping to use them in some way...but I never have. Maybe they will find their way into her room. I also have several decorative floral plates that may finally find a home, too.

After a feast for my eyes and lots of reject fabric choices, I was so happy to find what I was looking for and I'm even more excited now that I have the fabric at home. I love the colors, the variety in design/pattern and the girly, yet not pukey pink overdoneness of the fabrics. I tend to buy fabric, then plan my design or pick a pattern after the fact. I know that is completely opposite of how one would usually begin a project, but that's how I roll. I tend to like "scrappy" looking quilts and stay away from "matchy-matchy" ones. This quilt will have a combination of browns, pinks, reds, greens and cream colors in a more "modern" quilt design.

I choose the brown background with roses as my base fabric and built my choices around that beautiful fabric. I found a large (70" x 120") cotton tablecloth at Tuesday Morning and will use that for curtains or throw pillows or maybe in part of her quilt "fussy cutting" to center on one of the bunches of roses. Buying a tablecloth this large ended up being a better $$ deal than buying off the bolt and the colors are perfect. And, as a bonus, depending on what type of curtain I make, I'll likely use the short ends that are already hemmed for me cutting down on my precious sewing time making the need for only one hem to be sewed. At the bottom right is a metal tray I display in my kitchen...the colors work so well...I may need to find something new for my kitchen!
Here are my scratchings for her quilt pattern based on a pattern I saw online. Graph paper is my friend! And, yes, I'm too cheap to actually purchase the quilt pattern. Besides, I apparently don't like boundaries and strict rules in my quilting creativity. It probably makes things a little more difficult for me, but that's part of the challenge and fun of quilting! Time to wash the fabric and begin cutting...ooohhh, I need a spare moment or two!

6 comments:

Abigail said...

Really lovely fabric choices...

I can't wait to see how it takes shape!

Jenn said...

Beautiful Kiley. I love seeing your creativity at work. Very inspiring. And how much fun to be looking at girly fabrics! :) Have fun, friend!

Unknown said...

I'm so excited for you and think the design is awesome. I can't imagine how you determined how much fabric you would need if you bought the fabrics first. Oh well, the extra can just go in with the rest, right?
Perhaps I will get back to quilting some day. Do you know that the quilt we started together was 5 yrs ago (I think) in February? I have it marked on my calendar. Andy would love to have it on our bed....hmmmm...15 squares are hand-stitched; can't imagine doing the other 15 any time soon, but I'd sure like to. Here's to you, my friend!!! I know that this one will go together VERY fast because of your elevated excitement!

ryleeandnoahsmom said...

Very cute, Kiley! I was at Joann's on Wed. night picking out my own fabric. Is this going to be a smaller size quilt for the crib, or a wall hanging or a full size crib? Have you ever quilted before? I really like the brown and pink combo.

Jen said...

Love the fabric! I'm working on a quilt right now made out of old jeans. About the vintage hankies...how about putting them in some small frames to hang on the wall?

Kelly said...

Love the fabric choices! Did you ever finish? You'll have to post some pics of Sadie's room!