The Girls' Puffy Quilts

These quilts were a long time coming. Last fall I started to have the my-girls-should-have-matching-bedding itch, but we couldn't find any fabric that both of them wanted. The 10 year old likes brown and green geometrics or homespuns and the 6 year old still likes florals and pinks. I thought of using the Timber or Modern Meadow lines of fabric in the green and pink color ways, but none of the LQS carried either one. I couldn't bring myself to order that much fabric online, at full price, sight unseen, so we waited.

One day in the early spring we were in Hobby Lobby and the girls saw a piece of fabric they both liked (miracle, cue heavenly music). A coral with a floral and green paisley design. We got a large chunk of it and picked out coordinating browns, greens and burgundies for the 10 year old and pinks and lighter colors for the 6 year old then and there. While my husband was out of town on a trip, I left the sewing machine up in the kitchen and pieced the fronts using Amanda Jean's zig-zag (for the 6 year old) and ragged squares quilt (10 year old) tutorials.

For the back of the zig-zag quilt I used the left over strips to form a center panel. I really like it. Other left overs were used to make 2 large square in square blocks to mimic the ragged squares front.

Then they sat...and sat...and sat...until this month. (Have I ever mentioned that I don't like basting quilts?) But it couldn't be put off any longer if the girls were going to have winter quilts. I basted the quilts with 4 (!) layers of fluffy polyester batting, machine tied them and finished the binding with a serpentine stitch.

What a process...but now we and our quilts can just sit and relax for a second on the front porch.