A Bright Corner | alwaysacraftylady

Confession time. Making baby quilts is a lot more fun than knitting booties and hats. Especially when your friend is having an August baby. August is so very hot in California and who knows what size her son will be by the time we get any kind of cold weather. A quilt can be useful for years!

And when your friend and former roommate of 5 years has her first baby it is well worth pulling out the good stuff!

The pattern is a free download from A Bright Corner and called Charming Lucy. As written the finished quilt is about 35 x 35, but I wanted it a touch bigger, so I made each block just a tad larger. I’m fairly certain I used 6 inch blocks instead of the 5 inch charm pack blocks the pattern recommends. It’s kind of hard to remember the exact details since I finished the quilt back in June and packed it away until the baby shower. Pre-planning is great for stress free shower attendance, but terrible for remembering pattern modifications.

The fabrics are from a few different places. Most of the blocks are made from fabrics I received in Westwood Acres I Want Her Stash Club. These are from February’s shipment which was curated by Allison at Cluck Cluck Sew. And the bold primary colors are a perfect nod at sports without covering the quilt with footballs and baseballs. The white background is Architextures by Carolyn Friedlander. It has become my go-to fabric for sashing because it gives interest to the quilt without over powering the other prints. The quilt is backed with Play Ball by Lori Whitlock and the binding is a random polka dot I found in a bargain lot that just happened to fit the ~~team~~ theme perfectly!

Whew!

In the end, I love this little quilt. It is simple and sweet and I’m so very glad my friend loves it.

I cannot wait to meet her little man! Congratulations Julie!

Back when I was working on my Buzz Quilt my husband mentioned how much he would like a quilt. Truth is I’d been looking for manly quilt fabric for a few months already! Quilting is a majority female craft and it is no surprise there are tons of feminine and juvenile fabrics available for sale. But trying to find modern quilt fabrics appropriate for a man, that is kind of tough. And while my husband is a big fan of Liverpool Football Club he is not the type of man to want a fan fabric quilt. Likewise he is a camera operator/director of photography, but does he really want a camera quilt? Not really.

Enter Franklin by Denyse Schmidt

Photo from Denyse Schmidt’s site.

Franklin is inspired by the magic of possibility and discovery found in the small-town libraries of Denyse’s native New England. Combining the comfort of the familiar with excitement of new ideas and places, Franklin transports and trancends with the timelessness of our best-loved classics. Nostalgic calicos, stripes, and geometrics are reminiscent of beautiful end papers – and elegant, wise librarians. Franklin’s library is the oldest (1790) public library in the US and houses a collection of books donated by the town’s namesake, Benjamin Franklin.

Denyse’s mom (who taught her to sew) visited her local library every week, without fail, creating a lasting and deep influence on her daughter!

The line reminded me of the pocket squares my husband wears when is dresses up for special occasions and felt like the perfect fabric line for his quilt.

And designing a quilt with him turned out to be really fun. A collaborative effort. I gave him a choice of 14 different designs and we both liked Division Quilt from A Bright Corner the best. We also agreed grey sashing would be far more practical and more his style. I made all the blocks and they he picked the layout. He picked the batting (wool). And he picked the backing fabric and design too (Moda’s More Hearty Good Wishes Ripple Ocean).

I think this is my new favorite quilt. All the design choices played together perfectly.