Tuesday, January 27, 2026

Pink Cross Baby Quilt

We have flown the air like birds and swum the sea like fishes but have yet to learn the simple act of walking the earth like brothers.
~Martin Luther King, Jr.

Quilting

I have a shoe box of four-patch blocks that I've been making as leader/enders recently and also saw someone is starting a four-patch challenge or QAL. That motivated me to pull it out and organize them. Currently there are over 200. Many are three-inch but some are four-inch blocks. And I need another baby quilt. What to do? 

There are some bright pinks in my stash so I decided to make a Red Cross block. Here it is laid out with a choice of Kona Snow or light yellow print sashing. No brainer for me: Kona. {I made that brilliant decision after cutting the yellow. At least it's ready for a second baby quilt}

Two sashing choices

They are eight-inch blocks making the top close to forty inches. A simple border will keep it baby-sized.  Here are my choices. I planned to use one of the pinkier pinks and post them with blue but the purply-pink on the left popped the blocks better. It's enough darker that a blue post doesn't look right. 

Border choices

The border fabric is about 43" wide and is cut WOF. If I'd sewed the borders the "regular" way like Courthouse Steps, there wouldn't be enough. So again, I sewed partial seams. Each border needs only the inner width and one side. Just enough to work. 

Pink Cross baby quilt 

Perhaps it should be called Pink Cross instead. 

Meanwhile eight monarch caterpillars have started to pupate. Good thing; there's no milkweed left. I'm giving them cucumbers but while the older ones seem to be eating it, the smaller ones aren't. Who knows if any of them will make it? 

Monarchs pupating

Even these will be lucky to survive after molting. I plan to get some flowering plants since very little remains in the garden and another hard freeze is predicted this weekend. {My begonias may bloom because I covered them.}

Reading

Tim Cook passed away last year, one of Canada's most prominent and respected military historians. Although much of his work focused on WWI, he wrote an excellent book on the efforts of Canada and the US fighting fascism - The Good Allies: How Canada and the United States Fought Together to Defeat Fascism During the Second World War.

Canada entered WWII years before the US and worked tirelessly to protect the North American continent from invasion as well as supporting Britain in their darkest hours. 
The Good Allies by Tim Cook

It was enlightening and educational to read history from the Canadian view. 

Enjoy the day, Ann