I've been thinking about joining in on this project for a while now. I love homemade gifts and there is just something about wrapping up in a quilt that is like wrapping an extra hug around yourself. Last night as I snuggled down under two quilts I thought about all the time and effort that went into creating them and how much I hope that the few individuals I've made quilts for could feel that love in their quilts even if they are seldom (never) used. So today I went digging through my sewing room looking for materials I could use to make a child size quilt.
I've had this tin of Summer in the City for a while now and haven't attempted to make the project inside yet. I read through the instructions and realized that it only uses about 1/2 of the charms and only makes a 16 1/2 by 16 1/2 inch quilt. What would you even do with that? I thought I could expand it and make it bigger but my brain is still recovering from a migraine and I couldn't think that hard. The tin includes a full charm pack plus extra squares of this dark brown fabric. Of course I have no idea what color brown it is so buying more is probably not an option. I do have a few ideas floating around in my head and so I still may end up making a quilt from this to donate.
Next up I found this pack of 6 fat quarters. When I found this pack at a quilt show it had been made into the cutest bag but of course they were out of the bag patterns by the time I decided I had to make it. So I picked up the fat quarters anyway thinking I could go online and purchase the pattern. That was almost 4 years ago and I've never found the purse pattern (I probably wouldn't remember what it looked like now) and I haven't used the fabric so I thought it would work.
The DC Modern Quilt Guild did a Quilt Along based on this
pattern. Once I saw that I figured I could turn this tomato red/orange fat quarter set into a children's quilt pretty easily. I had some Moda Champagne that I bought to make my Greek Cross quilt with. I didn't like the way it looked with the Joel Dewberry Heirloom so it was sitting in my sewing room on the table. I thought it looked pretty good at first with the Wonderland.
Now that the quilt top is together I'm second guessing it. I don't think the palette is exactly what I would think of for a child's quilt. I'm hoping the dark colors will make it usable to some mother out there and that the whimsical flowers and polka dots will win over the child. I haven't found a place here to donate too so I'm hoping to do some research tomorrow to find a local charity that accepts quilts that I know will put them to good use.
