Blogger's Quilt Festival

It's that time again! Blogger's Quilt Festival! This time around I'm going to share with you Gia's Quilt. The plan for this quilt has been sitting in the back of my brain for a long time... and I didn't intend to be making it as a baby quilt for someone else... but that's how it worked.

First a little background. My cousin Chris met a girl (he's older than me... and has never really brought girls around... or really been around a lot himself), her name is Lizzie. Once Lizzie was part of the picture it was like suddenly there was my mature, cool, fun cousin Chris that we'd never really seen (no offense Chris). And Lizzie took to our family really quickly too - we love her! When they announced that she was pregnant I knew I had to make her baby a quilt (Chris' mom, my aunt Kathy has been pivotal in my crafting journey... it was fitting to make her first grandchild a quilt). I started off with a pretty basic idea, grey fabric, and some strips of various prints added among the grey... it sat on my design wall for months. It wasn't pretty enough - Lizzie had become more and more a part of our family and I think part of me felt that she deserved something sweet and pretty and gentle. So that's how I came to pour a lot of myself into this quilt.

Chris and Lizzie had found out that they were having a girl so I went with a light pink/grey/white color combo. I was a little disappointed in the lack of contrast in some of the blocks so I created a lot more variety in them than I originally planned. In all I love how it turned out.

Late night retreat photo - after quilting and getting the binding attached!

The other aspect of the making of this quilt is that it was almost entirely made during my very first quilting retreat. I had taken a plunge and signed up for the Chicago Modern Quilt Guild's retreat (although I had only been to one meeting) -- it turns out that those ladies are awesome!! I stayed up most of the night on Saturday finishing free motion quilting this baby. Now that is accomplishment! :) It was great having some late night sewing companions too. 

Lastly, I practiced my free motion writing for the label. It took a lot of practice writing "Gia" to get one that was worthy of the quilt, but I love it! Gia was about four months old when she received the quilt -- which is largely due to the fact that we live in separate states.... I love this quilt a lot, and I hope that Gia and her mommy know that they're amazing and that Lizzie is more like family to me than a lot of family I have. :) You guys rock! :) 

That's the story of Gia's quilt... now go check out the other awesome quilts at the Blogger's Quilt Festival