Sunday, June 12, 2011

Bib and Zig

I found out in February that my cute twin sister is expecting her first baby girl in July after having two boys. I was so excited to get working on a little quilt for her. I have been deprived of baby girl sewing for quite some time and my fingers were itching to do something pink!
I had started making squares using the string quilt technique even before I left Washington about a year ago for new quilts for the girls bedroom. But I never finished. So there sat beautiful Amy Butler fabric squares with no new home. I decided I would have to make something brilliant for Bryn. I agonized what to do for a quilt for her, because I just wasn't happy with lining up all the squares and sewing them in a straight line. After days of walking into my sewing room, rearranging squares with white fabric, walking away, coming back, rearranging more, etc, I dug through my boxes to find my one and only quilt book. I saw a pattern for a big zig quilt. Bingo.
I cut all the squares into triangles and used that pattern as my inspiration. But we all know how big chevron anything is right now, so it's not like this is revolutionary. I am happy to say that I worked it out to accommodate what I already had, and I loved the final outcome. I am not a big "quilter" so I just ran a zig zag running stitch through each chevron strip and called it good. I'm a less is more kind of gal anyway. We are short on fabric stores here, so I went to Joanns and found some subtle ticking strips in the perfect pink for a dainty backing fabric.
With a few extra squares, I made this totally impractical bib. I had to add some fabric flowers since the fabric flower craze came well after my little girl was born. Oh how fun it is to sew for little girls!
I gathered some adorable little outfits, a hot pink stuffed elephant, little Sunday shoes and sewed up some burp rags in coordinating fabric to send off just in time for her shower. I'd be lying if I said I didn't want to keep everything for myself! There is no one else I would rather send it to though! Can't wait to meet my new little niece!
Please excuse the poor quality of pictures. Not enough light, not enough time, and certainly not enough creativity to come up with anything more fancy!