emily's second quilt

It's not Thursday, but I'm doing a throwback quilt!

I've mentioned the young lady who is pregnant and will get the princess castle quilt for her little one.  This gal has two quilts from me.  A baby quilt and a toddler quilt.

The baby quilt was made with specifications of NO PINK!  Mom-to-be is not a girly-girl and she didn't want everything her poor child owned for years to come to be nothing but pink.  (I wish my mom had had the same foresight...even my brothers wore hand-me-down pink pajamas for a few years because it was just too much!)  So I made her the cover quilt from the book "In the Nursery" and mom loved it.

This was in 2004, I think.  I have no photograph, no record of it anywhere.  Oops!

Little Emily loved this quilt.  Dragged it around with her everywhere.  And by the time she was about 3, it was in tatters.

And she was a girly-girl.  Pink and purple and sparkles or it was not happening.  She is an only child (and a miracle baby at that), which I'm sure didn't help matters!

I was asked to make a new quilt.  One in pinks and purples, of course.  And I chose to make the same pattern.  I don't often make the same quilts twice, but this seemed fitting.

She loved it, but not like the first one.  I honestly remember very little about making this quilt, so I have little to share there.  But the pink I still have a teeny bit of in my stash - hoarding it - because it's a sweet print with a swirl.  And you know how I love me some swirls!

As I was chatting with her dad just a week or so ago, he mentioned that this quilt was so little used, mom put it up to save for the next generation!  It just doesn't compare to the first one - which he reported that, at 16, she still has with her in her bed today!  The first quilt being used to tatters and still loved and used makes me so happy.  I would much rather a quilt be used and loved and I get to make a new one than know it was put away in a closet to be saved.  Saved for what?

Anyways, we can't let the new little one get a "used" quilt, can we?  So I will soon be working on the princess castle quilt.  But first, Project Quilting challenge 4 is underway.  A sneak peek - the challenge title is "Birds in the Air" and we are to use that traditional block...

These colors look so much like Easter.  I didn't intend it that way and I will explain more when I reveal the quilt, but first I have to finish sewing it and quilt it and bind it!  (And after a very slow day at work today, I'm working on motivating myself to do anything - right now I just want a nap - I hate how slow days make me so sluggish.)

And one last photo - because a blog post isn't complete without a cat, right?

My hubby sent me roses for Valentine's Day.  I tell him every year I don't want anything and he never believes me.  (And I really do not want the credit card bill for the flowers he sent me!)  But this year, he decided I needed roses.  Orange roses.  Orange is the color of suffering.  Or so he says.  So he sent me 11 orange and 1 red rose.  He's such a brat.

But Finn and Freddie and Gabby really loved the box once I got the flowers out of it.  (They also loved the box WITH the flowers in it, so I spent half the time arranging the flowers and half the time putting cats back on the floor once they arrived.)  You can see Finn is blurry here - he was having a good time squirreling around in there.  They all have.  It's still in the middle of the floor in the back room where they left it and they're still using it.  But it will go to recycling with the other cardboard later this week.  (I'm sure they'll survive!)

Off to try to find some motivation...

Happy quilting!

Katie