One of my best friends from college is expecting her very first baby in just a few months. She also happens to be a quilter and made a quilt for Paul and Amelia when they were babies. She had a baby shower just last week and if that doesn’t scream “occasion to make a quilt” then I don’t know what does!

I wanted to make (yet another) scrap quilt because no matter how many of these I make I always seem to have enough left in my stash for at least one more. Is that a sign that I have a fabric problem? The mystifying thing is that I don’t just go out and buy fabric willy-nilly. Somehow over the years it’s just built up. I think I was in denial about just how much of it there was. In any case, I really like the process of sifting through the fabrics and finding ones that sort of work together as a color scheme – I sometimes drive myself crazy adjusting the final layout, attempting to make a random pattern that’s not actually random is strangely satisfying – like a giant game of Sudoku. I only bought one fabric for this quilt, which was the flannel on the backing. Every time I make a new quilt I promise myself that this will be the time I just use a whole cloth backing, but then I put it up against the quilt top and I start to feel sorry for the poor old plain back… so off I go to piece together yet another backing. I really need to just factor in the time it takes to do that step into every quilt making process. I just love the look too much to go without.

I haven’t been able to label this quilt yet because baby’s name is top secret (hence the initials) but that just gives me an excuse to go and see her once she makes her entrance. Baby girl I cannot wait to meet you! Enjoy your new quilt!