First real quilts

Each of our kids have been given a baby quilt for their birth by my mom's close friend, who has known me since my own birth. These quilts are slept with, snuggled and appreciated nearly every day. Being too big to nap under one, I use them as a lap blanket when I am on the couch, keeping me toasty warm. While sitting with such a quilt one day I came up with the idea of making a lap-quilt (or two) for an older couple I know so well, who live in a very cold place who live on a budget and so keep their thermometer at a very low temperature in the winter. Where to start? My ambitions are always greater than what I am capable of achieving. But this is a good thing - right? First of all, I really don't know how to quilt, Second, I have a small, small stash. Third, I have little time to walk the aisles of a fabric store or surf the net for the right colors or patterns. So, logically, I decided to go ahead to give it a whirl anyway. Stage right- Fat Quarter Shop and Flickr. Fat Quarter Shop has small bundles of pretty fabrics arranged by designer and Flickr has quilt ideas that go on forever. Since my knitting shop days I have always loved Kaffe Fassett designs (he designed for Rowan Yarns) so that was an obvious choice of fabrics for one quilt and then the coin quilts found on Flickr looked easy enough to try out. All in all it was pretty easy. I machine quilted (instead of hand quilt) and I don't really get how to bind the quilt together at the edges. It always looks machine stitched, but I am told its a blind stitch done by hand. So here they are. I am pleased and I hope gma and gpa are too!