Geaux Baby

This is Meredith.

It is clear that in the summer of 2010 she was overeager to get hitched. After catching 10 bouquets her boyfriend finally got the hint and proposed. They were married in 2011 and now are expecting their first baby girl in April.

They are wonderful friends, people and a great couple so I wanted to make them a special baby quilt. I chose purple and gold because they are both from New Orleans and are huge LSU fans. I used a bunch of fabrics from my stash, most of which were a gift from Kim a la crafternoondelight. There are a few Art Gallery Fabrics in there including some rock'n'romance. I started by sewing 2.5 inch strips together and then cut out 6.5 inch rail fence blocks.

I loved the mix of rich colors that aren't too babyish. The problem came along once I started to make a layout. My original design was a traditional rail fence layout, alternating the block 90 degrees from one another. It looked really busy and had no focus. Sensing the little cloud of doom over my head, my hubs helped me rearrange the blocks for about an hour until we settled on this layout. It kinda looks like a square modpop quilt. 

The only thing that bothers me is that I wish the purple fabrics made a complete box in the center row. C'est la vie.

 I took these photos in my BIL's back yard in New Orleans before giving the quilt away to the happy expecting couple.

I dug into some birds and the bees fabric for the backing. If I could change anything I would have made the trees line up where the red and yellow prints meet. Sorry the pic is so dark. It was getting late.

Here is a close up of my loopy flowery FMQ action. I used a gold gutermann thread. FMQing on my new machine is like a dream. 

I made a little label with the quilt name in the corner and I couldn't resist throwing in some cheesy hearts.

The binding was also a hard decision. I had the whole family going through my stash giving me options. Purple? Gold? Something else to pop? In the end I went with the ever so popular bike paths in gold. I bought this print in every color because it is perfect for bindings. The gold works equally well with the patchwork on the front and the red and yellow prints on the back. yippee!

Final stats

Name: Geaux Baby

Size: 36 x 42"

Pattern: reworked rail fence block 

Machine pieced, quilted, and bound by moi on my home machine. White Aurifil for piecing and gold Gutermann for quilting.

This was the last quilt I made in 2012. It was finished on Dec. 29th. Now on to 2013. Linking up with Plum and June's Monday linkup (a bit late) and fabric Tuesdays.