A Finally Finish: The Mauve-lous Panda Quilt

I love going on vacation, especially when it involves spending time with my Granddaughter Micah, but I really miss leaving my studio. I always bring a road project but it just not the same, is it? With that being said, I am SO behind on my QALs but before I can start working on them, I have a lot of baby busyness which needs to get done first. The Mauve-lous Panda Quilt, which was finally finished yesterday, is for "T" who is the owner of the local nail salon I go to and she is expecting her baby girl on June 1st.  I finished this quilt with days to spare.  In April, I had told "T" that I wanted to make a quilt for her baby and we were discussing themes which I am so glad we did. I was prepared to make her an Owl quilt, a popular baby theme, which to my surprise would have been a no-no since her family is from Vietnam and Owls would not be appropriate for a baby quilt since it symbolizes death according to her husband.  So "T" and I decided that Panda Bears would be a better choice and I was so glad to have found the mauve Panda print by Makower's from their Flo's Friends line.

I came up with this pattern because, pardon the pun, I couldn't bear to cut up the Panda's into small patches.  I was going to use nine patches for the sashing strips between the Panda panels but then I realized that I had the Checkerboard Express Block that I designed for Moda's Countdown to Christmas QAL last year which would be more interesting. I spent more time on finding the right fabrics for the sashing strips and backing since I knew I had to have had the fabrics in my stash than making the quilt itself. Personally, I feel if you are going to use less than five different fabrics in your quilt, they all have to play nice with each other; the colors just have to snap as I like to say. I really hunted through my Pink and Green stash to find the right shades. I used a Moda "Coral Rose" Grunge for the checkerboard and a Jade Green Dot from Benartex purchased many moons ago with a black and white gingham print and sure was glad I had enough of all three to make the sashing strips.

I quilted a combination of vertical organic lines with horizontal straight and crosshatch lines on the sashing strips and chose to use White Aurifil thread for the quilting which blended very nicely with the colors in the quilt.  

And yay for finding this sweet pink and black ric/rac stripe for the backing in my forever stash. This quilt measures 40"x42" so I was able to use WOF with an inch to spare on each side.  I'll be happily dropping off  the Mauve-lous Panda quilt to "T" this week.

As I mentioned before about my baby busyness, Micah will be visiting me this weekend since she will be attending the high school graduation party of our grandniece and getting to meet some family members who have not yet the little sweetie.  We'll also be dropping off the Jungle Crosswalk Baby Quilt to our niece, the mother of the high school graduate, who is expecting a baby boy in August.

  

I am so excited about seeing Micah so soon since it will only be six days since I've last seen her; usually it's weeks between visits.  Remember the Dot Is Crazy Quilt I made for her to use on her play porch?  I've committed a major Grandmother Quilt Crime by taking back the quilt since I found out after I had laid the quilt on the bench that her mother intended to leave it out all the time on their uncovered and unsecured front porch.  This may explain Micah's sad face in this photo knowing that Grandma was not going to let her keep the quilt.  I know that once a quilt is given away, the recipient is free to use it as desired but I'm sorry, I could not bear to see this quilt possibly getting ruined or stolen by outside forces. And it has nothing to do with my Mother's Day gift from Micah, a book about a Grandmother's Quilts which my DIL was so excited to give me. Unfortunately, she didn't read the story first because when Micah and I were reading the first page, the grandmother had passed away.  It should be no surprise that the book was taken back by the DIL.

There is a replacement quilt for the Dot Is Crazy quilt which is one I made several years ago as a test to see if fleece could be used instead of batting which happily worked out very well.  The nice thing is that fleece unlike batting does not need to be quilted as much and washes very well.  It's a nice, fluffy quilt, very colorful, the main focus print is from Joann's which I still have some left and I won't feel so bad if this quilt gets abused or goes missing because I can always make another one with the same fabrics.  This quilt will be going home with Micah, hopefully with no complaints.

I only have one more baby quilt to make by next weekend and then I can resume working on my QALs (Classic Meet Modern, Adult Playtime Plus and the Fireburst Mystery QAL and maybe I can get sidetracked by a DREAMi project which I also have started a few of them.  There is always something for me to sew which is good, right?

Linking up with:  My Quilt Infatuation, Needle and Thread Thursday,  Crazy Mom Quilts, Finish It Up Friday, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Can I Get a Whoop Whoop Friday, Busy Hands Quilts, Finish or Not Friday