Giveaway Winners and Starting a Baby Quilt

The winner of May's giveaway is Bobbi!

The winner of June's giveaway is Joelle!

Ladies, please email me our mailing addresses at mollysewsblog@gmail.com

On to my quilting fervor:

One of my oldest friends (and a bridesmaid at my wedding), Vicky, is having her first baby in August! That's so exciting! While I am going to make her a baby outfit out of the same fabric I made for Anna's baby, she also asked that I make her a baby quilt.

I have previously made my own quilt for a twin bed (2002), I made a quilt for Andrew (2006) before I started my blog, and I made a quilt for Andrew's little brother when he was born in 2009. Apparently, I never blogged about it? I'll try to find pictures, the baby quilt was so precious.

Andrew and his brother's quilts used the same pattern, below, to make a lattice quilt. It is still a delightful, fast slice and dice quilt, which are my absolute favorite. You know I am not a patient seamstress!

 I have never had a reason to go to any quilt stores in Chicagoland, but I happened upon the "Shop Hop" which had stores to visit, addresses and a tiny map. So on Tuesday, I set off on an adventure to suburbia and visited four quilt stores.

For the lattice quilt you need three fabric for the border stripes (that are echoed in some of the squares), two colors for the lattice and cornerstones, and then however many other fabrics to make up the squares. In my previous times, I used five prints. I was smart and actually made NOTES in the book!

Vicky and Ian are not finding out if it is a boy or a girl, so the quilt needs to be gender-neutral. Vicky is also not a girly-girl at ALL and specifically said "NO PINK!!!". So with that in mind, I set off to the quilt stores.

At Fabrics Etc 2 in Bensonville, I found my four main fabrics. They have a large selection and were super nice. The large blocks of the alphabet are going to be the back of the quilt. They are too big for the body, but were too cute to pass up. So instead of a plain, solid back it will be extra cute.
There I also bought the coordinating tiny animals, the diagonal stripes and the multi colored dots. They will be so cute together! They will make up the three borders and some of the squares in the body, too.

 Next, I went to the Quilt Merchant in Winfield. It is very small and has much more traditional, Civil War kind of fabrics. However, I did manage to find the coordinating orange and grey swirls. The orange will be the cornerstones and the grey will be the lattice.

 Then I went to Sew Generously in St. Charles. It was a cute store, but was mostly machines and not that much fabric. The fabric they did have was bright and modern, so I was able to find the hexagon print (above) to make up the triangles that finish the rows, and the dandelion puffs below to be some squares.

I went to a fourth store, but that was for Anna's (super late) baby quilt. Unfortunately (for my sewing timing), her baby arrived while I was making my wedding dress last year, so little Greyson will get his quilt in time for his 1.5 birthday, haha. That means I have until September, so it is second in my queue!

I am excited to start this quilt and I know it will be adorable and come together quickly! I already pre-washed the fabrics and I am ready to start cutting tomorrow!