I started this one when Bennet was a newborn. And I don’t know if the pattern is off, my cutting was off, or my seam allowance but I pretty quickly realized that things were not matching up. So I set it aside. And I was going to just give up on it all together but  a friend convinced me to trim up the pieces I had done and finish it. I’m so glad I did! I did pebble quilting in the sashing and some big stitch hand stitching in the colored areas. Here is a link to the pattern (a free one by Moda called Mind the Gap). I did change the colors a bit and used a mix of solids from different brands (can’t remember which now, sorry!). I haven’t seen many of these quilted so I thought I post to show how I did it. This is roating between my girls’ beds now, they love it.

I am part of two quilt guilds: Portland Modern Quilt Guild, of which I’m a founding member, and Corvallis Modern Quilt Guild. It’s no secret that traffic around Portland has gotten bananas. That makes it harder for me to get up to that guild every month. I like Corvallis because it’s an easy drive and one of my best friends lives there, and is in the guild! It reminds me of when Portland was really small, and not the largest Modern Quilt Guild in the world! We made 8.5″ raspberry kiss blocks for our guild president in Corvallis when she was expecting her first sweet baby! I quickly because obsessed with the blocks and made too many. They sat for a while but finally I whipped up some more to make this baby top. I used Quilter’s Dream cotton (affiliate link). I pretty much only use Quilter’s Dream battings now, they are consistent and so easy to work with. They hold up great and I have had great results with all I’ve tried. I gifted it to my kids guide. I’m still homeschooling the girls but we work with a charter that oversees their work, gives us some funding, has field trips, does the testing, etc. It’s a great combo for us. And one thing that makes it awesome is our wonderful guide, but we won’t have her next year as she takes a leave of absence for her third sweet boy! I decided this quilt was a perfect send off for her since I’ve rarely remembered a “teacher’s gift” or anything (props to those of you who do!). She LOVED it! Woot!

I am really trying to make myself buy more low volume prints. I love the contrast with the bright colors, which I have a hard time passing up at the quilt shop!