sixth time's the charm

 my friend, rebecca, has 5 boys ranging in ages from 16 to 5. she's one of my heroes because she's openly honest about how difficult those wonderful boys are, but she handles it with humor and grace, and they're all still in one piece. i think she is amazing.

low and behold, last year she got pregnant one more time. and it's a girl! i can't tell you how excited i am for her. of course that baby girl absolutely needs a quilt. no matter how full my quilting plate is or how high my wip pile, this is one baby that has to be celebrated.

i was recently absolutely obsessed with this quilt by jolene of blue elephant stitches:

from blue elephant stitches - posted here

i've already collected fabrics in these colors, but with a boyish flavor, to make a quilt for a nephew. then i got the idea to do it in these mod colors for a girl:

i was in love with the idea and took some of the fabrics over to rebecca to run them by her. after all, i want her to love her baby girl quilt. she was so excited to show me the nursery because no one in her male-dominated household appreciates the décor she's slaved over or the dainties hanging in the closet. after looking around the room, i thought perhaps the pull i had selected was a bit mod for her, but she told me she was definitely in need of blankets and that she thought any of the fabrics i had selected were pretty.  she seemed pleased.

a few days later, i noticed a charm pack and some yardage of "marmalade" stashed away at the top of my camille roskelley pile. i'd picked them up on a whim to make a baby quilt at some point in time. well, something about them whispered "rebecca" and "easy-peasy" to me, so i pulled them out. last friday morning i took them over to rebecca's house to see what she thought since i'd already shown her something else. but she was at an OB appointment. i didn't even bother to ask her husband what he thought. i just went with my gut instinct and changed plans for the quilt.

that night, after i'd knocked out the top, i ran into rebecca at the pinewood derby races at church and showed her a phone photo of the top. she immediately started gushing and squealing. i knew i'd done right to switch. i'll admit this quilt doesn't do much for me creatively because there really was very little to it. i hadn't even coordinated the fabrics myself. it was all too easy. but rebecca loves it and it's done a month before baby girl is supposed to arrive. so i'll be saving that yummy pull for the hst  chevron quilt for something else. no harm done.

 i did get some kicks out of learning the dogwood fmq quilting pattern when it came time to quilt it. i rather like that the blossoms are organic and individually unique on the front, but it does look a little different from the back without the blocks for reference. on the back it looks more like strange, squashed up, interlocking circles.

 i got even happier when i came to the machine binding success. again, not perfect, but such an improvement over my first few attempts. even the corners are looking pretty! that happy cutting mistake made a huge difference for me.

those first few attempts were so awful that i thought i'd never get machine binding down. looks like i lost hope too easily. here i am a month later happy as can be with this binding. i suppose the lows make the highs that much higher.

now to wash this one up and see how she crinkles before i deliver her to rebecca for that long-awaited daughter. forget thirds - the sixth time's the charm here.

linking up with amanda jean's friday finishes at crazy mom quilts.