Guilt free ( well nearly)

It's seven months now since baby James arrived on the scene for my train buddy and his wife, which means I am seven months late in delivering him a little welcome quilt. Its not for the want of trying, but more a case of life conspiring against me and general lack of organisation. I've had the fabric for months, having found a lovely design by Riley Blake called "Scoot"  which I spotted whilst browsing in Mandor's Fabrics in Edinburgh one day. I struggle to find fabric locally so like all avid quilters, have to take the opportunity to pick up a fat quarter, or as on this occasion, a half metre when ever I can. Why is it still nicer to ask for half a  yard I wonder? Old habits die hard. 
As with the majority of my baby quilts little planning usually takes place, with them tending to evolve as I go along. I know this sounds a bit haphazard and has regularly led me to ending up spending vast sums on backing after the size doesn't fit well with any fabric widths, but I like to think  the process is just like a little person growing themselves. We start with a little bundle that we know will grow into something we love and then low and behold things take a whole different turn and you end up with something you adore more than you can ever imagine.
Quite obviously  half a  metre was not going to do the job for James so I sought out a charm pack via Google which I found at  "Prints to Polka Dots" who are based in Witney in Oxfordshire. A nice speedy service from them and an interesting little set of samples sent with my order so i think I will be visiting their site  again soon. 

"Scoot" Charm pack

I am not sure why but my first instinct was to stitch these in  pairs of lights and darks and these then turned into an Hour Glass central section. As you will notice with lots of my quilts, I quite like a small 1" inner border before adding anything else as I think this always sets a pieced areas well , making it "pop" as they say, so I added the terracotta strip and then had an inspired Stash moment when i found a matching stripe. So that's me , all bordered up, with the original fabric from Mandor's setting the whole thing off with a 4.5" top border and a 3" side border.

The final step will be to head off to Brain and Carole's, my friendly local Long Arm quilters, to spend a couple of hours finishing this off. Its always a pleasure spending time with them, not only because of Carole's flapjacks, but for all the chat and the chuckles at Brian's individual input into any process. Again a very talented couple and they offer a great great service which I use regularly. 

So there we are. A great and productive day and hopefully little James will sleep more snuggly soon and I will have rid myself of the misery and guilt , not to mention the constant nagging from his father at my tardiness.