wild boy gets a quilt

if there is anyone in this house that is in danger of taking to the high seas, it is this guy, little J.

so, it is only fitting that his bunk bed quilt is covered in pirates, maps, and ships.  I might as well support his wild ways, as I have no other choice.

the fabric is the latest from sarah jane fabrics, I always like her playful, boyish prints.  they manage to come across as  tough enough that the boys find them fun and I like that the designs are still innocent.  I think our boys are right in that sweet spot when innocence is still possible.

this was one of the few things that were sewn for my family this christmas…between holiday markets and memory quilt commissions I didn’t have much time to sew for family.  but, I squeezed this one in.   it means both boys have semi-matching quilts now, I am a sucker for symmetry, I tell you.

I struggled a lot with pulling this quilt together.  I really wanted it to consist of three prints and three solids including lots of white.  but, I could not for the life of me decide on what the other two solid colors should be and I went back and forth with bright red and yellow and the muted blue and grey that I eventually chose.  I don’t want a quilt to scream at me, I wanted it playful but still calm.  I’m not convinced it was the perfect color choice, still but I’m happy with how it came out.

I did really enjoy the free motion quilting process.  I haven’t done much free motion quilting and I am officially smitten….I hope there is much more in my future.  the stitches on this quilt are not perfect, in fact I see mistakes every time I look at it, BUT it still looks lovely and washes with a great pucker to it.  at the end of the day, free motion quilting is more forgiving…the darning foot just bounces around making it easier to avoid the fabric folding over on itself.  I feel like I don’t have to be so intense about pulling and pinning everything perfectly straight because there is a bit of wiggle room with the bouncing presser foot that just isn’t there with a regular straight stitch foot.  as an added bonus, the end result looks just oh so….well, quilt-y.  I love it.   I will admit it can get quite comical wrestling with the quilt itself while the machine bounces around.  it’s a good thing I work alone.

the boy himself (on the right up there) he isn’t so crazy about this quilt, I will admit.  I mean, he likes it and says he likes it when he’s crawling into bed but opening it on Christmas day wasn’t quite the thrill that came when he opened up the Star Wars lego set.  he was polite and gave me a weak smile but quickly said “are there other gifts for me?”.  the poor plight of the children of mama makers!  sorry kid.