Monday, October 12, 2009

Seventh Grandson Quilt-for Quilt Festival

I just now heard about the virtual Fall Quilt Festival at Amy's blog. Convenient, since I recently made my first quilt in more than 25 years, and the first for one of my grandchildren, now numbering nine. This blog post is my entry into the festival fun, and will be redundant to many readers of my blog. But even they might like to hop over to Amy's and join in, if only to browse the many, many wonderful quilts and their stories.

When I decided to make this gift, we didn't know the sex of the child. The parents love the outdoors and live in the forest, so I decided to do a farm or woodsy theme. When I visited a quilting store, these fabrics were the only ones that seemed to fit my vague imaginings.

The quilt was finished in time for the pre-birth baby shower, where a total of four handmade quilts were given, mine definitely the homeliest. Also the largest; it is approximately "crib sized." It was tied with six strands of embroidery floss, and designed following the ultra-simple pattern I used for the other two baby quilts I made long ago. I backed it in yellow popcorn Minky.

At completion I wrote a long blog post with many photos of the process, which you can visit if you want to see just how rough my work was!

The Child came into the world just two days ago, and as I type, my daughter is holding him nearby, wrapped in the very blanket!

12 comments:

Jeannette said...

Homely you say-that has the word home in it- homey I say -lovely I say and invitational, for you have already imagined the child playing under the trees on the edge of the forest, chasing chickens in the sun and gathering eggs and apples and you sewed all that into the quilt. Rail fence is one name for that pattern.

Anonymous said...

This is beautiful! Please do not call it homely!! It is beautiful and I love your use of nature colors and theme. You did a terrific job.

I also enjoyed your reading list!

GretchenJoanna said...

I was using the word "homely" in a more traditional sense, I think, meaning to say homespun with a touch of folksy mixed in, not polished. But not ugly. Thanks, Serena and Jeannette.

Zonnah said...

I love how all the fabrics look together. Very pretty.

Carol said...

I'm partial to green and rustish colors so I like it.

Northern Deb said...

This is such a nice quilt. I love the choice of colors in it. My grandmother always made tied quilts for us when we were children and I still have one (its over 45 years old!). It's a treasure!

Rebekah said...

cute quilt! Love the colors and fabrics in this. I also like how you tilted the zig zag pattern to make a step pattern

Gumbo Lily said...

I'd call this quilt homey and cozy and a blessing from the hands of Grandma. I always loved a larger baby blanket because those wee ones grow up so fast and outgrow their blankets. I hope C. ties it around his neck and plays Superman with it!

Jody

duckyhouse said...

What a beautiful story and gift you have given both you new grandbaby and your daughter. It's lovely!

Suzanne said...

Congrats on your win! It's a very nice quilt!

Jeannette said...

Gretchen did you see that you won a prize! Wonderful!

GretchenJoanna said...

Thanks to Jeannette and Suzanne for alerting me to the fact that I won the drawing.That got me looking at more of the entries, which activity I find too, too addicting. But I did get good ideas for potholders!