a belated birthday quilt

In October my mother-in-law celebrated a milestone birthday and she asked if I would make a quilt for her redecorated bedroom. Well, really she asked for a quilt and then told me it could a birthday gift. 'Sweet,' I thought to myself. This year's gift was clearly a no-brainer. Little did she know that it would come closer to being a Thanksgiving gift than a birthday gift. Oops! 

She had the floral fabric left over from the newly reupholstered cornices and the solid green was a remnant from the trim on a set of pillow shams. Since the fabric she gave me to work with was all home decorator I stuck with that weight for the rest of the fabrics I chose. All are from Joann, even the prints she gave me to start with. 

I didn't have a pattern in mind when I began the project, but the size of the oddly shaped floral fabric remnant dictated how I would begin. Basically, I was forced to cut the floral fabric into twenty-two inch wide strips that were really really long. I cut the strips into more manageable pieces and ended up with nine rectangles, about 9" by 22." 

I brought them along to the store to pick out some coordinating prints and solids and chose a stripe in the same colors, a brown and cream print (does anyone know if that one has a name?), a solid blue, and a solid brown. Each fabric was cut into strips of varying thicknesses. Then I laid out three of each fabric into three columns, playing with the design until I was happy with it. 

The back is the same blue from the front, and you can see a tiny triangular label in the bottom right corner. My mom helped me with the free motion quilting since she has more experience with it, her machine is better equipped to handle it, and she knew I was anxious to get it done... this being December. And my mother-in-law's birthday was in October. I think the quilt ended up measuring about seventy inches by fifty something. I'm so precise.

The quilt is bound in the main floral print. Let me say that making a quilt out of home dec isn't the easiest thing to do. That was one thick stack of fabric when I was binding the corners. 

Ezra was keen on interrupting my quilt photo shoot and insisted on incessantly poking his Grandma's gift with a stick. My little boy is already obsessed with sticks.

{couldn't resist posting this photo of his chubby hand}