in grandma's sunny woods

A couple of autumns ago while I was babysitting for my only grandchild, I snatched a paint sample from her bedroom which was being painted in preparation for the arrival of a new sibling. Tucking the sample into my pocket, a brisk walk a couple of blocks away took me to one of my favorite fabric stores.

Browsing the aisles lead me to the shades of green of my paint sample and the closest softest match was the fabric on the far right. Carrying around that bolt of fabric helped me to pick out several more prints that would blend well with my main fabric pick. In the end, I ended up with only four main fabrics with the middle two in the picture having a slight shimmer to them and the far left fabric serving as my backing.

Once back home I played with block making as I mixed and matched and cut and reassembled. Yet, nothing was coming together in a way I liked. So the fabric sat in a bag while my first sweet new grandson was born.....without a handmade quilt from his grandma.

Months later while digging through some other fabric, quite by surprise I ran across eight thin fuzzy light yellow flannel squares that my mom had cut. Finding them immediately gave ME warm fuzzies!

And that was the beginning of my first untraditional type of quilt. Many blocks in a variety of the green fabrics were cut of the same size as the yellow flannel squares and my hands were busily laying them out and rearranging them until the sun was shining through my woods.

In the very center of the quilt, a sun was designed on the yellow flannel by hand stitches that radiated out from a heart. A heart that is a remembrance of this sweet baby's great grandma who had loved quilting AND babies very much.

The yellow-green fabric shimmered out the rays of the sun with additional hand stitching coming out from the sun as the rays filter through the woods.

In the far corners of the darker woods can be found small meadows to remind this sweet baby of the maker of his baby quilt.....

.....a grandma who loves flowers and butterflies and gardens.

With relatively little hand quilting which also made this feel like an untraditional quilt to me, I needed to add a tie or two of floss to add a bit more tradition in honor of the family quilters who have gone before me.

The backing held a special cross-stitched section with names, dates, and.....

.....important stuff like "made with love by Grandma".

And on a gloomy fall day in grandma's woods, here's the final result of grandma's sunny woods quilt which will snuggle a grandson *if* he's willing to give up the quilt he's been using in the meantime which is the quilt of his daddy that was made by this baby's great grandma many years ago.

To delight in the quilting handiwork of others, please visit Amy's Fall Blogger Quilt Festival and follow the many links. Or feel free to hit the link in my sidebar which will be good until the next quilt festival.




Thank you for stopping by to see my quilt.  Your sweet comments are much appreciated!

Blessings,
Tammy ~@~