Everyday Party

I fell in love with Everyday Party at first sight. This collection is one part girly, one part retro, and all parts adorable. I can't thank my friends at Birch Fabrics enough for sending me a bundle to play with this week.

I went looking for a pattern that would nicely showcase these lively prints and finally decided to enlarge Rita Hodge's lovely Jacob's Ladder pattern from Pretty in Patchwork Doll Quilts by Cathy Gaubert. It made me smile to return to this title, one of the first sewing books I ever purchased, and I highly recommend it for anyone looking for small projects that are relatively quick to make but that will also introduce you to new quilting techniques.

Everyday Party looks so springlike to me that I also added two Kona solids -- Tarragon and Grass -- to complement the prints with a little green. This quilt turned out exactly the way I hoped it would. I adore the vintage look of these colors together and the simplicity of the design and quilting. It's been pouring rain here for the past few days, but I ducked outside for a few minutes this evening during a short break in the downpour to take photos. Bless my sweet dad who stood holding this quilt in a chilly drizzle so that I could get my blog post written tonight!

The quilt is backed in two prints from the collection: Everyday Quilt and Everyday Main. For binding, I used the Meadow Floral print which is a dark blue green. Though I wasn't sure at first if it would work against the solid greens I had used in the quilt, it ended up blending together with them perfectly.

When I first sat down with these fabrics, I envisioned making a tea party quilt that the girls could use in their imaginary play. Halfway through my sewing, I realized that Mouse had outgrown her previous bed quilts and really needed a new one, so I readjusted the size to fit her little bed. She's been dancing around my sewing table for the past few days with excitement over her new quilt. I even let her sit on my lap and stitch a bit of the quilting with me. After this evening's brief photo shoot, I brought the quilt out and wrapped her up in it -- much to her delight. "Thank you for making me this quilt, Mommy," she sighed as she snuggled down into the layers. "I'm going to keep it forever and ever and ever and ever...for a long time!"