Hollis's Big Girl Quilt - Beginning steps

 A friend recently asked me if I still blogged as she had not seen a post in a good while.  Well, I do, just have been neglecting it.  So thought I would share the beginning steps of a quilt for my Granddaughter Hollis.  Her birthday is October 18 and I do hope to have this quilt ready to give to her.  I am thinking of hand quilting, but that will determine on when I get the top done.  If I do, it will be big stitch and will only be around 65" square, so I might be able to get it done.

Hollis loves flowers and butterflies, so that is my theme. My inspiration for the quilt comes from two books: Granny Quilt Decor by Darlene Zimmerman and Rose Sampler Supreme by Rosemary Makhan.

This book had several quilts that I liked and pulled different ideas from.  The butterfly arrangement around a center block and the use of 9-patches for the background blocks.

Then I pulled 9 flowers from this Rose Sampler Supreme book to use on the quilt instead of the Southern Belles in the quilt above. 

This is my layout, I drew in EQ8.  I made the applique blocks grey just to show how they fell in the quilt, but the background will be white, just like that used in the 9-Patches.

Next step was fabrics to use.  I had already started selecting some fabrics, but needed some solids and few more to complete the selection.  That is done now and I do like the way the fabric all seem to be friendly with each other.

I am going to hand applique the butterflies and flower blocks, but since Hollis will only be 5 when she receives the quilt, I want to make sure it is up to the use/laundry challenge it will receive.  I am blanket stitching applique following a technique my mom taught me.  Basically you baste the applique in place with 50wt thread matching the fabric.

Then you blanket stitch over the basting stitches, leaving them in place to strengthen the applique. Momma always used embroidery floss for the blanket stitch, but I am using white hand quilting thread

as I feel this will hold up better with wear and tear.  I also plan to quilt it with white thread.

Doing small stitches so they are not that noticable, but found I did more even stitches if I put a sticker on my thumb marking how far apart the stitches should be.   I have completed two of the four butterflies in the quilt, and am satisfied with how they look.

The butterflies will all have the same fabric pattern for the wings, just different colors. 

That is where I am this morning, having fun making the butterflies.

Thanks for stopping by. 

 I noticed two people have quit following me, that is kind of sad.  I have tried and tried to figure out why I cannot respond to comments on my blog.  I used to get an email when I received a comment and I simply responded to that email, but they just quit coming.  I have checked my profile many times, and I have it marked to send me email comments and my email is correct - just not working.  I have tried to contact blogger, and they do not respond to my questions.