The center of my Grandmother's Pride block baby quilt is done along with a first border.
But this is the partially done second try at an outer border I've made today and I'm not liking it any more than the first one I did.
So I think the quilt (such as it is) is going to have to hang on the design wall for a while until the right idea comes to me. Sometimes I think either a quilt has to have a rest period, or I do. I need to give this one time to tell me what to do to finish it.
I used to get very frustrated at not being able to work a project all the way through to the end, but now know it's just a little mole hill.
Is it a mountain or a mole hill? When my husband was teaching third grade, often a little person (or group of little people) would come up to his desk crying or angry. Somebody (or more than one somebody) would be very upset. He would patiently listen to what everyone had to say and then pose the question, "Is this a mountain or a mole hill?" At the beginning of the year with a new group of kids, often they didn't understand what that meant.
As the year went on, he was always amused when a child got upset for one reason or another and before he, as the teacher, had to enter into the fray, another student would say in a very teacher-like voice, "Billy, is that a mountain or a mole hill?" And the discussion would start, the situation would be worked through and Roy never had to say one word.
So my little mole hill of a problem concerning the best outer border on this quilt is no big deal. Rather than remaining stubborn and banging my head against the design wall this afternoon, I'm going to start on another project I already have in mind. And I'm confident that if I just wait for the appropriate moment, the solution for this quilt will easily come to me.
It's funny how I can have an idea in my head of a quilt I want to make, but almost from the get-go plans get changed.
I wanted to use this fabric as the background and outer border focal fabric and imagined using it with shades of pink and purple. The purples jumped out at me immediately. Easy on that count.
What about the pinks? Let me say, I've got a fairly good stash of pinks, but do you think I could find even one piece that looked good with my focal fabric? Nope. So then I tried some greens. Ooooh, no, not at all. How about some darker yellows? That floated like a lead balloon also.
Well, why don't I use just the two purples? That idea was starting to sound very good. (Small delay in progress while I put away stacks and stacks of pink, green and yellow fabric.)
I'm using the Grandmother's Pride block and have the twelve of them that will be the center of the quilt done.
Another little change the quilt insisted upon . . . originally, I had intended to put the blocks together without sashing but once again, the picture in my mind's eye didn't match with the way the blocks looked when I got them all up on my design wall. Even though I really like this particular block, I think it needed the sashing as a frame.
So I'm in the process of adding the sashing and will try to post a picture later today (or tomorrow . . . the house has GOT to be shoveled out today) of the center completed.
Stay tuned . . .
The lavender/lilac/purple fabrics in the quilt have proven very difficult to photograph. These shots were the best I could do so you'll just have to believe me that it's much prettier in person. Honest.
I started the quilt by choosing this pretty little flower on the yellow background. I ended up using this fabric as the backing also. I knew I wanted to use some lavender and I immediately found two fabrics in my stash that filled the bill. If you look closely you'll see that the flowers have a pink center.
The block pattern I chose is an old one. It's called Grandmother's Pride and I used a size of 7-1/2". I made twelve blocks, laid them out in rows of three across and four down, added some sashing and I had the center of the quilt. Then I repeated the yellow print for the borders. I was going to use one of the lavender fabrics for the binding but saw that it detracted from the center of the quilt so went with a repeat of the yellow.
Finished size of this baby quilt is 33" x 41". The fabric and batting are 100% cotton. It's most likely going to be sent to a girl baby due to be born this spring.
