A Quilt for A

I am having the hardest time photographing this quilt. I admit it is BRIGHT purple, green and red and this may be a little hard on my poor camera. And I live in a dark, shadowy house filled with nightlights and soft light and soon, Christmas lights, so this might also pose a challenge.

But it's so hard to capture., and I wish I could get a better picture. Because I am so proud of this quilt. It's not my very first - I believe it's my fourth. But it's my first from an expensive, fancy-pants quilt store fabric and I was totally nervous about screwing it up. This is HILARIOUS when you consider that THIS was my first quilt:

My first quilt was started by my Great-Grandmother. We found it wrapped in garbage bags in the rafters of our garage at the cottage. My Mom and I took a quilting course one weekend and learned how to complete it. The pins that were holding it together were thick and heavy and made of iron. The fabrics were from dresses worn by my Grandma and her sisters, sheets that had covered their beds, and old shirts of my Great Grandfather. We bought navy blue fabric for the backing and the border. The ladies at the quilting store were SO excited about it. My Mom and I worked on it all winter and presented it to my Grandma for her 75th birthday. She and my aunts and my whole family really were thrilled. Grandma ran her hands over it and told us where each of the prints had come from. It sits on an antique rocking chair in her room. So really, I should not have been intimidated at all by a little flannel quilt for my son's bed. But I'm weird.

Actually, this wasn't too far off from the one I had made for my Grandma, at least in terms of sentiment for me. I had originally bought the green and purple fabrics intending to make a quilt but ran out of time and ended up making receiving blankets. They were awesome. My boys had them in their strollers, on the grass at the park, after swimming a few times, on the dock at the cottage. All sorts of places. And when they got too big for them I just couldn't wrap them up and put them in strorage. So I took them apart and cut them up into squares.

Then I asked my 5-year old to help me put them together. He is working on patterning in school and it seemed like a good exercise. He was SO proud of it. There was one small error (that I think was actually MY fault) but I decided to leave it. I kind of like the "mistake". Then I went back to the same quilt store to find fabric for the baking. I had dark purple in mind. They had nothing that really went with my crazy colour scheme but the lady at the store suggested the red. I wasn't sure but red is my oldest's favourite colour so I went for it. I am thrilled with the results. My youngest son claimed it instantly and there is nothing better than tucking him to sleep at night and hearing his sweet little voice say "I nuggle Mommy, I nuggle my foosh". Can't wait to get to work on the next one!