Jenny's quilt

OK, the baby quilt.

My friend Jenny had just painted her guest bedroom coral and then she found out she was pregnant. And didn't want to repaint so the baby's room will have coral walls. Blue or pink is so traditional, but I love people who do the unexpected when it comes to decorating! And I had (I thought) the perfect thing to make a baby quilt with—a vintage baby sheet with ducks. I'd begun the embroidery last year and the feet were coral and a perfect match. But, then she found out it was going to be a boy. And suddenly the ducks didn't seem very "boy". Hmm, what to do?


A partially completed block.

So, we looked through all my embroidery projects and found a set of quilt blocks with animals. That didn't help much with the coral but it was a start. We couldn't find anything suitable in my stash of fabrics (everything with coral was too flowery) but the very next day I received the Hancocks of Paducah catalog in my mailbox and I found the perfect coral striped fabric. It also has pale green, light blue, turquoise, and brown—since many of the animals will be brown, that works well. I also ordered a green fabric with white dots as the secondary fabric. That's backordered but I suspect it's not going to match very well. But I have an alternative—Michael Miller's Dumb Dots in brown. She tells me that the furniture will be dark wood so I think this will look better.


The fabric and some of the embroidery colors.

Except for the second fabric choice, things were coming together. At least enough that I could start the embroidery. I'm sticking with realistic colors for the animals, the leaves will be green to match one of the stripes, and the flowers (there are just a few) will be done in coral. I got to use a little blue for the water the hippo is sitting in, but there won't be much opportunity to use that color again. I'm saving the words for last and will do them in coral or turquoise (or perhaps a combination) to work in a bit more color.


Another partially completed block—the only block with water.

I have a long way to go but I'm trying to get an hour or so of embroidery done every day and it's coming along. This is the part that will take the longest. I don't anticipate problems with the fabric piecing but I haven't decided how I'll quilt it yet. I'd like to do it with brown top-stitching, or by adding flat brown buttons in the corners (although that's probably a no-no for a baby quilt). If I run out of time, I'll hand-tie it. I have until Christmas, which seems like a long time. But I'm still wondering how it got to be halfway through September already?


I'm working on the leopard spots now.

I'll update on my progress as I go along.