Okay, fellow Crackpots, I’ve hit the Nesting Bug. Last Friday I was out at Joann’s, because rotary cutting blades were 50% off, and I was looking at the fat quarter bundles (30% off), because I love fat quarter bundles. I had been thinking about what to do about the baby’s room, since whatever we do will need to be gender-neutral, but the gliding rocker that Nancy is generously passing along to us (thanks, Nancy!) is blue. I had been thinking about a yellow-and-blue color scheme, which wouldn’t be entirely gender-neutral, but probably close enough (and we’re not ones to quibble about the defeminizing influence of the color blue on little girls).
So Joann’s had two fat quarter bundles in pastel yellow and blue palettes. And one of them had a fabric with nursery-rhyme characters, including a cow jumping over a moon, a dish and a spoon, a cat playing a fiddle, and a dog in trousers. (I’m not sure what the trousers have to do with anything.)
But wait! One of the yellows is actually a multi-colored paisley, with pink and green as well as blue. Yellow and blue and pink and green all together are very gender-neutral…
Do you see where this is going?
So, I picked up the two bundles, a couple of additional fat quarters in pink, and combined them with stuff from my stash to put together the following palette:
(Note to self: I need more greens!) Now I just have to decide what to do with it. It’s definitely going to be a wall hanging, not a full baby-sized quilt. I’m thinking about one of the large one-block baby quilt patterns that have been in Quiltmaker in the last few years, or maybe a small sampler of sorts with four blocks or so. Any suggestions for a relatively large, complex, abstract quilt block design like Arrow Crown or Memory?
It’s a great collection of fabrics. I like those large one-block baby quilts. I’ve seen a book that is something like Make One and You’re Done. A more technologically advanced person could link to whatever the real title of the book is on Amazon. I think the idea is that the quilt is one fairly large, somewhat complex block with various borders. One consideration would be how many of the fabrics you want to use. You’d have to plan carefully to include them all in a large one-block quilt. I guess it would depend on how many pieces the block and borders have and how scrappy you want it to look.
But this could be just the starting point for all sorts of coordinated baby accessories…
That’s a great palette, Cathy. I’m sure that whatever you do with it will be great. After all, expectant mothers by definition cannot go wrong when it comes to making things for their babies. For some obscure reason, I like idea of the multicolored paisley in a baby quilt. Here’s a thought: Nancy has a cool book of paper-pieced baby quilt patterns. It includes a very cute hot air balloon, which I think would look great with your fabrics. But then, I’ve always liked that balloon block and am obviously feeling unfulfilled because I haven’t been able to find an excuse to make it yet.