Orchid, Brown, and Beige...

If you've looked at my blog for any length of time you've probably noticed that I am not good at doing controlled color schemes with my quilts. I can only think of a handful of quilts where I really stuck to a controlled color scheme. But...my husband's cousin was pregnant with a little girl and, after asking through family members, I found out that the nursery theme colors were orchid, brown, and beige. I know just enough about this cousin to know that I should do a fairly modern quilt layout and settled on a chevron design (there was a specific design I'd found that inspired this quilt but I can't find it now...).

The hardest part about this quilt was choosing the shades of orchid. I had very little in my stash that was what I'd consider orchid. I bought quite a few different fabrics and eventually settled on these:

I already had the two on the left

I made crumb blocks with my tan and brown scraps and cut those into half square triangles that would finish at 4" finished, then paired those with the orchid triangles I'd cut to match. Each column was a consistent orchid fabric with the scrappy brown and tans as a background.

Completed top, the lighting is better on this to see the colors

Quilted and bound

Backing and binding

For a backing I used one of the fabrics that I'd ordered but was too pink for the front. I finished the quilt and washed it the night before we left for a trip where I could deliver the quilt by hand to the new mother and her family. Everybody loved the quilt, especially when I pointed out all of the brown and tan fabrics in this quilt that were in quilts I'd made for my kiddos and my other nieces and nephews. A little cliche, but there's a metaphor in there somewhere about quilting and familial ties that bind us together...

2019: A Trio Of Little Girls

The title is misleading. I didn't really get a picture of the first of this trio finished...but it has been waiting for the recipient to get me a mailing address. It's hard when you try to make something for someone who you've only met online, but I'm holding onto it in case the mom gets back to me with it.

I did a sort of experiment with these quilts that I'm not entirely sure I like the end result of, but they're done so...I guess it counts as a finish/win in the end. I used the idea and layout of Bonnie Hunter's Random Ohio Stars, but used the stars from her Sister's Choice quilt instead.

I made a lot of 9 patches in the two sizes (4.5" unfinished out of 1.5" strips and 6.5" unfinished out of 2.5" strips). The backgrounds for the big stars were neutral tan fabrics, the backgrounds for the small stars were darker brown fabrics, and the alternate blocks used big/busy print fabrics that I rarely use. This is the part I'm not a huge fan of - they make the quilt too busy against the 9 patch stars.

A little busy, but still pretty fun

I really like the quilting texture

Busy...but it's sewn together and given to its recipient

Stars everywhere!

Pink binding for a little girl with a very active older brother

The third quilt is very similar, for a little girl with three older brothers.

Overall view

Quilted texture

Backing, binding, and label

I stopped after making these quilts and put the leftover 9 patches away to use later.

The only picture I have so far of the first one I finished but have put away until I can confirm if I'm giving it to the intended recipient:

Binding with my cuddly old puppy