A Pair of Cross Baby Quilts in Blue

Once you get a spice in your home, you have it forever. Women never throw out spices. The Egyptians were buried with their spices. I know which one I'm taking with me when I go.

~Erma Bombeck

Quilting

I spend a lot of time using up my scraps. My small scrap bag is the first place I go when making blocks. I almost have to force myself to get into the stash. This past year I made a determined effort to draw down the boxes and now have five large shallow ones left: three for quilting fabric, one for clothing fabric, and one for UFOs. Although I strongly denied having any, quite a few were unearthed during our Swedish death cleaning. My quilting group and I have been laughing that we will be buried with our fabric if we don't get busy and use it up. We haven't decided whether it will piled on a Viking ship and lit up or wound around our bodies like the Egyptians. And perhaps my family will sprinkle some of my spices between the layers.

Anyway... using stash fabric means the scrap bag filled up again. Back to my old habit of starting with that stuff. And I need to because lots of friends are still having babies since DH works with many young people. I pulled all the blues, greens, and purples. There were a few black and white prints also but most of those came from Nann and were already cut this width. 

Cross quilt 1

I admired the many plus blocks on the internet but didn't want to copy any exactly. These off-center crosses produced more ways to arrange the blocks. This one creates a plaid effect. What fun to move the blocks around, deciding whether to group similar colors or scatter them across the surface. 

Front and back of Cross quilt 1

The back is a large-scale blue flower print that I found on sale somewhere. I purchased three yards but forget what it was planned for.

Cross quilt 1 folded

I love these photos of the quilts folded up. Such a good way to see both sides and the binding, too.

Cross quilt 2

There were so many blocks as well as that extra backing that I had enough to make two almost identical quilts. I divided the duplicate blocks into different piles then added singletons until there were forty-nine for each quilt.

Front and back of Cross quilt 2

They are very simply quilted SID along the block boundaries and the crosses. I considered more quilting but this is enough. Much less than I usually do, though.

Cross quilt 2 folded

As usual, I thought these would restart my baby quilt stack and, as usual,  one was called for almost immediately. Lucky me. 

Quilt Specifics

Size: 42" x 42"

Design: Plus block

Batting: Mountain Mist Cream Rose cotton

Thread: Gutermann blue cotton thread

Quilting: SID with walking foot 

Approximate yardage: 3.75 yds each

Reading

Jacqueline Winspear's latest Maisie Dobbs is available and I couldn't wait to read it. While The Consequences of Fear covers the latter half of 1941, it explores the effects of fear on the characters. Fear from their past as well as the future. An excellent continuation of the series.

Monthly FUR (Fabric Use Rate) 

Four quilts finished this month. Shadow Star is my largest quilt to date and has taken several years. I'm delighted it's done and on the bed. Yardage used doesn't count for me until the quilts are quilted and bound. May = 35.5 yds. YTD =  78.125 yards.

Enjoy the day, Ann