Emma Makes A Quilt!

Both of my daughters are at the age where many of their girlfriends are having babies. I have written on several occasions of helping them (in varying degrees) to make a baby quilt for this or that friend from high school or college or work. To read about some earlier efforts from Emma, click here and here. To read about some of Erin's baby quilts, click here and here.

More and more I am doing less helping! They are becoming quite confident in their quilt-making efforts. Yay! Both girls have a baby quilt in progress, and I have done practically no helping whatsoever!

Having the daughters take up quilting has been really gratifying for me. They each have a very distinct sense of style and color, and do a good job of combining fabrics and patterns. I believe it was Emma who said before making her first baby quilt that she figured she would continue the tradition of Honnold ladies making/gifting baby quilts. *smile*

Last Saturday, Emma came with fabric and when the day ended, she had a whole quilt made and quilted! The only part left to do was to hand stitch the binding. And she did it all on her own! I was across the room to give advice and offer suggestions, but she did all of the construction herself.

 We started with cutting strips of 5 fabrics that she purchased for this little girl quilt. The idea was to copy a quilt I recently made - super fast beginner stuff, for sure. Emma decided the width of each row and the placement of fabrics.

After she decided the quilt top was finished (that's the beauty of this quilt - no pattern! Just make it up as you go!), I dug out some scrap batting. She had already determined that the elephant print would be the backing, so we prepped it, spray basted all the layers and set up for machine quilting.

While she quilted, I made her binding. She stitched it on with corner instructions from me. This week her only job has been to hand stitch the binding. The baby shower is tomorrow.

These last two photos provide a closer look at the fabrics - the color scheme is purple and gray. The fabrics are not at all "juvenile" prints; they run from that elegant floral to the more playful elephants and dots.

It was a fun day. We visited and gabbed all afternoon. Emma did 10 years of 4-H - all sewing - so she knows her way around the sewing room. Once she gets more settled, we'll get her a sewing machine of her own, and she will be able to do all of this without Mom's help. (Hmm, maybe I will hold off on getting her a machine of her own!) I really enjoyed the day. *smiles*

Happy Quilting, Friends!