Little Pinky the Third

Well, hey — I made it back before spring LOL. All the usual excuses and a busy fall. And, boy, was it a beautiful fall here. It’s just barely getting cold now, and on a sunny day, it’s still pretty nice outside. I’ve been busy sewing and playing with the grandbabies — lots of fall school activities which have been really fun. Plus, I stayed with the girls while their parents had a week’s getaway in October. It almost killed me but it sure was fun and I loved every minute of it. And then I slept for two days when it was over LOL. Oh, and TheManoftheHouse had his right shoulder replaced in early October — that was NOT fun, poor guy. It’s a pretty painful recovery, but he’s doing well now. It creeps me out to even think about it.

Since I posted about FinallyAGirl’s birthday dress last time, I thought I should post the birthday dresses for the littlest two cherubs. (Excuse the poor cell-phone photos!)

FinallyAnotherGirl (on the left) turned 4 in September, so I made her a little fall dress. The pattern is the Back-to-School free dress pattern from Classic Sewing Magazine and the fabric is Belle and Boo’s Autumn Ditsy.  I worried about making a seasonal dress that wouldn’t get much wear, but she wore it a lot (Grandparents Day and Thanksgiving among them), so it was well worth it.  HurrayAThirdGirl turned 3 this past weekend, so I made her the Wiksten Baby + Child Smock Dress out of a cute little floral print by My Mind’s Eye.  The girls all love pockets and the smock pockets are big enough for her beloved little babies.  ;-D

But enough of the fall chit-chat, because …….. TA-DA:

I’ve finished HurrayAThirdGirl’s baby quilt! Better late than never!

I LOVED every minute of making this quilt.  This is the first lone star quilt I’ve ever made and I was a little worried that it would be really time consuming, but the star went together more quickly than I expected.  I used the method outlined in The Lone Star Quilt Handbook by Blanche and Helen Young.  It’s an old book that I’ve had in my stash for years, but surprisingly you can still get a copy on Amazon.  I got the Star pieced along with the background fabric behind the star, but I didn’t have enough of the little Le Creme Swiss Dot background for the borders, so I had to order some more and wait awhile until it got here.

When it arrived, I finished the borders and then, I took it outside to baste it on the driveway (because it was during the time when I forgot we have a basting frame {doh!}) and LOOK what the sunlight showed!  Can you see it?

Ohmygosh!  LOOK at the difference in the dye lots of the background fabrics.  The older Le Creme dot fabric was more yellow.  The astounding thing was that when the quilt was in the house, you couldn’t see the difference at all — the first picture was taken inside and the second picture was taken outside.  What a difference sunlight makes.  Or maybe it just doesn’t say much for the quality of the lighting in our house!  Anyway, I was having a cow and briefly thought I’d just go ahead and quilt it like that, but I just couldn’t do it.  I knew I’d never be happy with the quilt like that.  I suppose I could have told SweetiePie that the quilt could never see the light of day haha.  Anyway, I spent a few days, carefully unpicking each of those eight background sections by the star points and then replacing them with the new fabric, one section at a time so the whole thing didn’t fall apart.  Then, in the summer, I put the quilt on the quilt frame and spent most nights for the next 2-3 months quilting.  And just like the piecing, I loved every minute of quilting this quilt.  Here’s a picture of the ceremonial last stitch.

The fabrics in the quilt were all from the stash (well, except for the new dots LOL) and I used a little pink and white baby print from the stash for the backing.

I debated how to quilt the star points — most of the quilts I looked at online quilted through the middle of the points.  I briefly considered that, but then opted for quarter inch quilting around each diamond, which took a lot longer.  I’m so glad I did though, ’cause I love the result.

This is the third of my little pink baby quilts and I loved making each one of them.  I didn’t mean for the last quilt to be so much bigger than the other two — it just happened.  I guess, if you have to wait so long for your baby quilt, you get a little extra prize.  ;-D  SweetiePie noticed that the star quilt is bigger, with more quilting, and she thought maybe it was the difference between working and being retired.  But, I was retired when I finished the smallest quilt too.  I just picked what I wanted to make in each case, and this is how they turned out!  The family reunion shots:

And here’s our little sweetheart in the bright sun, noticing the flowers on her new quilt.

It’s such a nice feeling to have their baby quilts all finished!  Whatever will I do with all my time now haha?  I guess I should start thinking about their wedding quilts.

XOXO,
Anna