Hootenanny Quilt

The journey of this quilt began with a girl who is turning 7 in a few days. She is my son's good friend and classmates for the past 2 grades. She is always polite and (according to my son) her favourite colour is yellow, and then blue. As for me, whenever she smiles she reminds me of sunflower --- bright and happy. This quilt is going to be her 7th birthday present.

I love making baby quilts and quilts for children. But I must admit that making a quilt for someone you know can be difficult, particularly in choosing the 'right' design. Not to mention there is the pressure of a deadline, which is a bit like entering a quilt challenge, trying to get it done before the date of her birthday party. It took me weeks to decide the pattern of the quilt, in consultation with my son, of course. As he knows his friend's taste better than I do. I hope.

Next is the colour scheme, going through my stash, pulling out all the lovely yellow fabrics I have and some other fabric for accents. Slicing, and playing with the placement of the fabric for a few weeks until I am happy with the arrangement, racing through to the end of quilting and binding.

This is also my first quilt using some "shot cotton" from my local Spotlight store. Shot cotton is basically a cotton fabric that is woven in 2 different colours of thread in its length-wise and cross-wise wrap. In my case my shot cotton is made up of blue and black woven together to give it a varied blue, black tone.

Unfortunately I didn't pay more attention to differentiate the front and back side of the shot cotton, and only when I finish my quilt did I realise that one side is slightly lighter than the other side. Having said that the difference is not terribly visible and I am very happy with the end result. The texture of shot cotton makes the negative spaces interesting since it is not completely solid in colour, it provides depths as the fabric gives different colour or shade of blue depending on the reflection of the light. Not to mention it is also soft to the touch. This quilt should be big enough to last and grow with her for many years to come.

You can find this quilt pattern in "Dare To Be Square Quilting" by Boo Davis. This is one of my favourite book and I have made a few quilts from this book. You can view it from my Flickr.

As for the back of this quilt, I used Lauren and Jessi Jung's "Hideaway" (Swiss Alpine Village in the Forest) and "Botany" fabric collection (Topiary in yellow) that I have saved.

I am going to give it good wash, dry it and wrap it up --- just in time for her birthday! Phew!

Thanks for reading,
Erica