April Showers

Wow, it seams like everyone at school is having a baby. My friend Shannon is due next month and she has decided to be surprised on the sex of the baby (Who does that now-a-days???). I knew I wanted to make her something special using my embroidery machine that she would love. All I knew was that her nursery was yellow and green with pictures of bunnies using pea pods as hammocks. I spent some time looking for something similar and I came up with nothing. Then we enjoyed a record amount of rain on Long Island and it got me thinking about spring and all the beautiful things that happen this time of year because of the rain. Her nursery colors also made me think of spring time. I found these designs on the embroiderylibrary.com and just totally fell in love. I knew they would be perfect. I also never made a quilt with only two colors before.

After I got 2 blocks done my Babylock decided that it no longer wanted to work. I tried everything I could with no success. I was so upset that I would have to be without my machine and would not get to finish my quilt. When I took my machine up to Pieceful Quilting, where I get all my machines, they not only took it in for service but let me take home the floor model so that I could finish my quilt. I was so grateful. It was so nice and it allowed me the time I needed to finish my embroidery. I will never buy a machine from another place. They are wonderful

I very much underestimated how long the embroidery would take me. Originally I thought I would only do 9 blocks. After the blocks were done I decided that it wasn't enough so I went on to make 16 blocks. So I spent the entire weekend changing threads in front of the BabyLock.

It was totally worth the time. For the designs that I repeated I tried to make the image a bit different using different colors. This was good practice for future quilts. I think that these images would make really great bath towels, especially in a kids bathroom or for spring kitchen towels. I think I will use these images many times in the future. I have another baby quilt to work on for another friend at work and I am planning to start the embroidery soon.

As I was constructing the quilt I came up with the theme of April Showers. I liked this not only because of the colors and images but for the symbolism behind it. Shannon is due in mid-May and her shower was in April. For many pregnancies there are many "showers" along the way but in the end you end up with something very beautiful.

Shannon loved her quilt so much that she put it up on the wall in the baby's room. I hope that it is something that she will enjoy with her family for years to come....

Happy Quilting

-The Mad Quilter