Playing With Stripes

A few weeks ago I learned that an old childhood friend had given birth to a baby boy, her first. And when I got an invite to the shower I knew that I had to make little Kiran something special. I tossed around some ideas for a few days, but nothing seemed right. Then I stumbled on this new quilt design by Cluck Cluck Sew, called “Pow-Wow.” And THAT reminded me of this Lauren Moffat fabric that I’ve been kind of obsessed with, as well as these stamps, which I pinned last fall, and which, it turns out, inspired Allison’s quilt, too!

Suddenly I had an idea that I really wanted to run with, so I pulled out a pile of vintage stripes from my stash and got to work.

Once I’d sewn up a bunch of chevrons, I strayed from the original plan for a minute. I thought they looked like the feathers on an arrow, so I played around with that, but ultimately decided that perhaps the new parents might not like weapon imagery…

I also really liked the idea of a colour wheel, but I’ve never pieced curves before, and thought that doing so for the first time on a last-minute gift might be asking for trouble. I think I’ll revisit it in future, though, because I love the way the mock-up looks! I just need to tackle a few test curves first. When I figured it out I’ll let you know!

Finally, I went forward with my original plan, and I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out!

I have no idea what the grey is, since it’s been in my stash a LONG time, but it’s close to Kona Coal.  The backing fabric (unfortunately I only got the one crappy picture of it) is an Ikea print from 2007.  I thought it matched the vintage sheets quite well!  The binding fabric is a Cranston VIP print. And I’ve got lots of vintage stripes in the shop, if you want some. ;)  I’m hoping to put some bundles together this week for anyone who’s interested, so stay tuned!