There Was Joy In Every Stitch

Some of you may remember the post I wrote about a year and a half ago about Baby Grant.   The precious little miracle baby born by adoption to my wonderful young friends, Dennis and Ashley.  (If you want to read it, you can find it here.)

Now two years later, after a miraculous pregnancy, a darling baby girl was born to Dennis and Ashley - and Grant. (On Grant's birthday!!  How amazing is that?!)  

For the last six months of Ashley's pregnancy, I've been dreaming about making a perfectly beautiful baby girl quilt.  I literally spent hours looking online at patterns and fabric, because I wanted this quilt to be just right!

When I found the pattern, I knew it was it!  I ordered the fabric and looked at it for about a month before I finally took the plunge and cut into it!

(For those of you that might be interested, the fabric is Bon Bon Bebe by Robyn Randolph.  The pattern is called Rooftops by Amy Sinibaldi.  And just so you know,  she was the one who came up with the amazing fabric combinations.  I'm a good copier!  However, I did add another full row to the quilt, as well a couple other small changes! )

I have to say that it was sheer joy to make this quilt.  The fabric is the highest of quality and the pattern was just challenging enough that it completely held my interest as I pieced each block together.    The fabric is such a wonderful combination of vintage, retro, and modern.  Absolutely dreamy sweet.

To save time, my original plan was to machine quilt it, but as I was spending hours each day piecing the blocks I knew there was no way I wanted to risk ruining it by quilting it on my machine.  

After the quilt top was complete and laid out with the backing and batting, out came my quilting needle and thread!   I put my thimble on and went to work.  Can I just say that there was joy in every stitch?  My stitches aren't perfect and tiny, but they are my stitches and I loved every one of them.

The crinkly sweetness of a freshly washed quilt just cannot compare to anything!

I debated over what fabric to use to bind it.  After a lot of contemplation and texting pictures to my close girlfriend Luanne, we both agreed that a scrappy binding of the polka dot fabric was the best.  And oh my, how I love it!  

I backed it with numerous large block pieces of fabric pieced together and made a special little tag which I hand-sewed to the back.  (They say one of the worst things you can do is make a quilt and forget to put a tag on it for future generations!) 

Every single stitch on this quilt was worked with happy thoughts and sweet memories!  Little Shelby's Momma means the world to me and I wanted this quilt to reflect that.   

Can I admit that parting with this quilt was hard?  Smile!  I hugged it tight, packaged it up and put it in the mail.    

And then I got these pictures and I just smiled and smiled and smiled!  I couldn't be happier!

Congratulations on your precious baby girl, Dennis and Ashley!  I love you! 

P.S.  I owe Grant a quilt for his big-boy bed!