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Reminiscing on my Color in Motion Quilt Project

It has been a sick filled month for my family. It started with my daughter who got a virus which turned into Croupe, then she gave it to me, I was sick for weeks, and we tried so hard to protect my Son Everett who is 7 weeks old from getting sick, but his little body couldn't avoid it. On thursday evening we had to take him to the ER, and it turned out he has RSV. RSV is a very very common virus that effects your respiratory tract. Most people have had it at least once in their lives. But, to get it when you are only 7 weeks old is very dangerous.

It is so painful to sit and watch your child struggle so badly. We were in the hospital 4 days, but we are home now. The struggle is not over yet, but Everett sure is a fighter! Since I new I would be in the hospital a while, I decided to bring a few things along to make it feel like home. One of those things was the quilt I made for Everett when I was pregnant with him.

While I was snuggling up with it, I reminisced on the making of his Color in Motion Quilt.

When we found out we were going to have another child, my husband immediately said, let's wait to find out what it is. I was not a big fan of this idea. Especially since I usually get about 20-30 ultrasounds during my pregnancies (due to a blood disorder) and I new it would be so hard to resist looking during them. But, the more and more I thought about the idea I decided it would be fun.

When I started to plan for his quilt, I knew I wanted, very bright colorful, unisex colors. So after searching for a while, I chose The Woodlands by Khristian A Howell, which I got at Moona Fabrics, one of my favorite online designer fabric stores.

Since this was only the third quilt I had ever made, I knew it'd be best to get a pattern. I really love all the whirligig quilts, so I searched for one that would work well with my fabric choice. I found the Color in Motion quilt pattern from Sweet Jane's. Her patterns are so easy to follow and this one was fat quarter friendly.

I was already about 7.5 months pregnant when I started working on this quilt. Somehow I always seem to choose to do things on a deadline.

Watching this quilt come to life block by block was so much fun, it just kept getting better and better. When I added the border I was really excited.

The pattern was for just the quilt top. So I needed to come up with design for the backing. I went ahead and repeated the border on the back, but twice the size with some white sashing.

I made this quilt the Baby Size 46" x 54", which turns out to be huge compared to a newborn baby! But, it will work for him one day.

I finished the quilt about a week and a half before I had him. But, again I couldn't stop there! I had a lot of fabric left over, so I decided to make a car seat cover as well. I found a tutorial for a cute car seat cover at the Moda Bakeshop, called the Sophie Car Seat Quilt. This was super easy and tons of fun, of course until I went into labor!

I went into labor on a Wednesday, progressed halfway, and then my labor stalled. So I was sent home. I got about a half a day of rest and then my contractions came back every 30 minutes for days! During that time I decided to keep working on the car seat cover, for something to keep my mind off the pain. So I would cut, cut, stop for a contraction, piece, piece, stop for a contraction. Oh, so fun! I almost finished it, but finally went into active labor 3 days later.

Both my husband and I felt like we were going to have a boy. So much so sometimes i'd forget I didn't know. When he was born they put him on my stomach, and I forgot to even look! The doctors didn't say anything and I think about 5 minutes went by, before my husband shouted, well it's a boy! Oh, what joy filled my heart, to meet my Son Everett Martin Lichner, my Surprise Baby.

I am so blessed and thankful for my two little kiddos, and I can't wait to shower them with zillions of Quilts through out their lives!

Alyssa

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