Bright Baby Quilt

A dear friend's daughter is expecting her first baby, a girl, in the coming months.  I'm very excited for them, but at the same time, it makes me feel a bit nostalgic.  I remember when my friend brought her daughter home from the hospital, all five pounds of her, and it feels like yesterday that I marveled at the tiny little girl whose head fit entirely in the palm of my hand.

Anyway (get a grip, P.), next weekend is the baby shower.  I thought I'd make a baby quilt.

I asked the mom-to-be (M2B) not to peek at the blog until after the shower if she didn't want to spoil the surprise, and she said she wouldn't.  Do we trust her?  Of course we do!

So here is the finished quilt, pulled together from some bright triangle pieces I had cut but not used for a kaleidoscope quilt.

I was informed that M2B was not a big fan of pink, but as you can see, I did my best to ignore that help her overcome it.  I mean, when you're going to have a girl, pink happens.

Truth be told, I was ambivalent about the top when I got it sewn together.  I questioned my use of big, bold, bright colors in a baby quilt.  Should I have gone with a softer palette?  So when it came time to create a backing, I took it down a notch and went with an Alexander Henry Heath in steel gray, with a single horizontal strip that included some more muted fabric triangles. I think they're Kaffe Fassett.  Okay, maybe they're not all that muted, but I tried.  If the front is too much, flip it over and take a nap.

Really, though, as I thought about it, my wish for Amy, the M2B, is that she has a bright, bold, strong baby girl, like the colors of the quilt, and just like she was.

I quilted it in horizontal wavy lines (I only had to unpick three, one because it was my first and kind of nervous looking, and the other two because they were too close to the edge of the short ends).  It is bound in a black and white mini polka dot.  It didn't seem right to go with anything less dramatic at that point.

My hope for this quilt is not that it matches the nursery decor (but if it does, bonus).  My hope is that it's the kind of quilt that gets hauled around, tossed down, cuddled in, spit up on, dragged through dirt, tucked in with dollies, and ultimately falls apart from all the love it can withstand.