Quilting for a friend

Hello everyone!

Thank you for the comments on my daughter's Easter dress!  After I read the comments here, and on Patternreview, it made me feel so special!  So, thanks again!

My next project is going to be another "first" for me--sewing a quilt.  For some reason, I have never been interested in sewing a quilt before, though I have had a lot of people tell me I would love it.  Quilts just didn't appeal to me.  I appreciated their beauty, but I had no desire to sew one because I was more into garment construction.  However, now that I have another friend who is pregnant with her first little girl, I suddenly got this strong urge to make her a quilt.

It all started when I saw this gorgeous design on Moda bakeshop. It is a baby lattice quilt designed by Amy Smart, and it is lovely!!  As I began to read the instructions for the quilt, I was wondering if it is something I could actually do, since I have never done a quilt before.  With my background and experience in sewing I thought it was something I could do, but I was a little skeptical because some of the quilting terminology was throwing me off.

So, I decided to contact the quilt designer Amy Smart, after I found out she has a blog called Diary of a Quilter.  Let me first say, if you have any interest in quilting at all, this is a great website to visit.  Amy has a special section for beginners with all kinds of tips to help you along.  Second, I sent Amy an email regarding my situation (not expecting her to respond), and she kindly returned my email with such support and encouragement!!  She told me she definitely thought I could sew it, and I would just need to make sure to maintain 1/4 " seam allowances throughout.  She also wanted to see the quilt when it was done!

Her response gave me the extra push I needed to do what I already believed I should do, and that is to sew this quilt for my friend and her baby.  Now I originally planned to give myself a whole month to sew the quilt, just in case I had any mishaps, but I'm actually going to end up with a little less than two weeks in order to have it finished in time for my friend's baby shower.

Here is the quilting pack I decided on:

I went with this one thinking that the pictured fabric was pink, blue, and brown, which are my friend's baby shower colors.  However, the brown is actually a beautiful slate gray!  I was surprised, but it still works.  I still have to find the coordinating fabric, backing fabric, and batting, but I will be headed to Joann's this weekend to work all of that out.

Here is what most of the squares look like laid out:

This is not a final draft by any means, just me playing around with the squares.  I'll keep you updated on my progress until the month's end, but I hope it doesn't take me that long.  I wanted to squeeze in one more project for this month (a shirt for myself), but I figure I'd better leave that well enough alone since this has been a much busier month for me.

Enjoy the rest of your week,and stay sew-filled!