Baby Quilt Update

I promised an update on the quilt for Baby, but so far, I haven't delivered, and I've made a lot of progress on the quilt!  So, this post is quite overdue.

First of all, my plan was to make each block in stripes of a color.  I was going to make two blocks each in pink, red, orange, yellow, green, teal, blue, and purple.  Then, I was also going to make two blocks each in pink/red, red/orange, orange/yellow, etc. through to purple/pink (omitting teal this time).  This would give me enough blocks to make my quilt.  Each block was going to be striped like this pink one:

Since I wanted two different blocks of each color, I wanted to have about 8 different fabrics in each color.  There would be stripes of some of the same fabrics in each block, but the two blocks would still be different from each other.  (I also included two strips of a neutral color fabric in each block.)

I went through all the fabric I already had (and my mom's and sister's scrap piles) and made a list of what I still needed.  For about four weeks, I hunted the remnant bins at our local fabric stores, and after that, I just purchased the last few pieces I needed in fat quarters.  I saved all the new fabric up to wash together.  I just love how nice it all looks:

Then, I sorted all the fabric - new and the stuff I already had - into piles.  And took pictures of the rainbow effect, because I am Leah.

:)  Happy colors.

Some of the fabrics had two or three main colors in them, so I could use them for more than one block.  However, I avoided using fabrics that had more than 3 dominant colors, since the point was to make monochromatic blocks.

Once I had my piles, I sewed two practice blocks in pink just to get an idea of how many strips I'd really need to make the right size blocks.  Then, I spent many hours cutting strips and making piles.  Then, I spent a long time ironing the strips.  Then, I spent many hours sewing them together into blocks and trimming off the excess fabric.  Then, I spent many hours ironing each block and attaching a very thin iron-on interfacing to the back for added stability.

And that's how far I've gotten so far.  Here's my stack of finished blocks: 

The next step is to cut each block down to the size I need.  After that, I'll figure out my layout, sew them together, and then I'll be ready to quilt!  

I've taken quite a break from the whole project, though, as preparing the nursery and finishing Christmas presents seemed more pressing.

Love and Stripes,

Leah Joy