Munchkin's First Quilt (Part 1)

I don't have any know-how at all when it comes to quilting. I've never really been interested in quilting, or really ever had any desire in any fiber of my being.

And then I saw this:

And then I thought maybe quilting wasn't so bad after all. This lovely quilt was created by Lee, of Freshly Pieced, and I must say she did an excellent job. I love the contemporary, folkish feel of this quilt, especially for a little girl.

So after seeing this, of course the first thing I did, with my loads and loads of experience  was start cutting out my own little triangles. This lasted about an hour before I realized that maybe there was just a touch more to this whole process than originally expected. I love it when crafters can make projects look completely effortless, and they're not. True skill there. 

With that in mind, I went back to the drawing board, determined to start with a slightly less complicated quilt, just to get my feet wet.

After scouring the internet for a few hours, I found this:

Much less intimidating. I found this gem on Pinterest (along with the rest of my life) from a blog called Museum of Happieness. Just a few strips of different fabrics sewn together, no problem, right? Wrong. Turns out coordinating colors and all of the other steps involved in making a truly gorgeous quilt aren't nearly as simple as they appear. I really should stop assuming things.

Anyway, I am in the process of attempting the "block" quilt, if you will (I really have no idea what it's called). It will, of course, feature the lovely butterfly fabric that I'm using as the main theme of Munchkin's nursery:

I found this little gem at Joanne's on sale for about $5/yard. I like it because it's not obnoxiously girly or over-the-top, but it's not neutral either. The entire color scheme of the nursery is very soft and spring-like (pictures to follow), defiantly feminine, but not in a little girl way... If that makes sense.

With my first quilting experiment, I've determined that I'm not actually brave enough to attempt machine-quilting the top with my little sewing machine, and so one of my grandmother's avid quilting friends has offered to take care of that part for me at long as I have the top completed, and send all the additional supplies to her. I'm so grateful for social people like my grandmother who have friends of friends of friends who love babies and doing things for babies and for the babies of the friends' grandchildren. Much less expensive, and you can ask for help from people you know you can trust.

All of my assumptions about quilting blowing up in my face has brought back my resolve not to become a quilter. I think this will be little Munchkin-Face's one and only quilt made by her ambitious (or over-zealous, either way) mother. I might attempt matching sham or two for her bed with the triangle theme in mind, but we'll have to see about that once we get through this one. More to come.

Farewell for now,

Kati