Quilts aplenty...

...if 'aplenty' equals 5, that is.

I don't think I managed to share the finished results for most of these quilts yet, so here you be. Five beautiful, hand-stitched baby quilts for your viewing pleasure.

It never dawned on me before now, but I think I can officially call myself a quilt designer (as opposed to just a quilter). I have never purchased or even followed a published quilt pattern. Aside from seeing some in books, I don't even know what one would look like. Each of these quilt designs sprang from my very own little grey cells (that's a Poirot reference in case you missed it).

Whenever I start a new quilt project, the first step is always to sit down with a few sheets of graph paper, a pencil, ruler and, most importantly, an eraser to plot a few things out. This step is invaluable for figuring out exactly what's going to be involved in creating a particular design - better to realize a design is going to be a nightmare at the paper stage rather than once the rotary cutter has done its thing. In theory, this should also help me determine exactly how much fabric will be needed. Yet even so, I seem to find myself back at the quilt shop mid-project with surprising frequency.

This quilt is part of a new project series I'm starting. The fabrics were part of a fat quarter of the month club I joined recently at a local quilt shop. Each month I pick up a new package of six fabrics and use them to create a brand new, one-of-a-kind baby quilt. This is October's quilt (the first in the series). I have the fabrics for November, but haven't designed the quilt yet. What I like is the challenge of working with fabrics I wouldn't normally choose. Let's just say, I'm much less fond of November's fabrics as I was with October's.

I think this next one is my favourite. It busted through a bunch of my scraps (which is always a bonus) and uses a beautiful Kona solid in grey as the main fabric. Word on the street is that one of the local quilt shops will be getting a shipment of solids very soon! This is a vast improvement over a few months ago (have I really lived here long enough to say that?!!?) when they looked at me funny when I asked where they kept their Kona solids. They'd never heard of them, let alone were they carrying them in their shop! I've been forced to do a few quilts without true solids now and though they are beautiful, they're just not as appealing to me.

I will eventually get around to putting these in the shop, so message me [heymilkybeer at gmail dot com] if you want to call dibs on any of them!