Quilting Bee

I thought we were about to embark on a bird project, but I think we've gotten sidetracked.

The Littlest Mr.'s blankie has reached the crisis stage. It's a hand made quilt. I would say that it's beautiful, but right now, it's not. It really came to our house for the first Little Mr., but he never really took to it. He had a different blankie, which is also now in shreds. They really love them hard.

The blankie was beautiful in the beginning. It's a log cabin pattern of soothing country blue. Each block has a country pink square in the center. There is also white fabric. All of it has little flowers on it. The back was just plain muslin. Now, it is really in disrepair. I'm actually afraid to wash it at this point.

So today began the quest to make new blankets. Each Mr. wants one. We've spent the whole day going through the quilt book. Measuring the original blanket and making paper patterns. Plenty of crayons and graph paper have been sacrificed to this project already.

Next will be a trip to the basement. See that's where I keep all the fabric. Then we'll try hard to calculate the amount of fabric we need. I'm not so good at that. I know there are places to figure that out and formulas and such, but we kind of made our own pattern off the blankie we have. Besides, I really prefer to just go with the picture in my mind and see how it turns out.

I'm sure we'll make multiple trips to our local fabric store. I have to decide about sewing too. Should I do it by hand or by machine. I think machine could make it a fast project, but I think I would enjoy the by hand part.

Part of the glitch of this project or perhaps the excitement and learning part of this is that I've never actually made a quilt. I've never actually had too much success at sewing anything. I've made some clothing--pretty sorry to be sure--for myself, but it was maternity and I was bigger than a cow and really didn't care at the time. I just wanted comfy.

Today, I'm quite surprised and pleased to see my boys bent for color and design. They have both come up with some really great looking ideas. They show their differences. One is big and bold and bright. The other is more restrained and orderly. Different kids, different tastes, different outlooks.

My outlook, all good from here.