My 1st Signature Quilt

Sheesh!  I knew I’d be stopping posting every day but that was all of a sudden!  I was spending way too much time on the computer putting up new posts to get this blog started and going through the Online Quilt Show, so I had to take a little break to show my husband that I could live away from my computer screen.

And now that I’m back, I thought I’d show you the 1st signature quilt I made.  It seems I’ve gotten myself hooked on the concept!

This is Elena’s signature quilt, hanging where it lives above her bed.

I told my Mom when I was pregnant with Elena that I’d love a signature quilt for my little baby.  My mom graciously cut into her own stash, cutting out about 100 3.5″ squares.  She then ironed them all onto freezer paper to provide a good writing surface.  AND she ironed on little “frames” 0.25″ wide of freezer paper on the good side around each square so people would not write in the seam allowances.  (I don’t even want to think about how long that must have taken!)

And then we took the squares to my baby showers for everyone to join the signing fun!

I *knew* these were going to be at the baby shower, but I still freaked when it came my turn to write because I had NO idea what to write!  I mean the message would be there for her to see for (hopefully) ever!

This block is evidence of the 1st time I wrote “Mommy” on something from me to my children.  It felt SO strange to sign something, anything, with Mommy!  And you can totally tell that I didn’t feel comfortable with it because I had to write “your Mommy” instead of just “Mommy”!

I love that Elena always looks for my block.  I’d like to say it’s because it’s from me, but in truth it’s because she loves looking for the heart I drew on my block.

Also funny is that my parents signed as Grandma and Grandpa at the baby showers, however they are now called Grammy & Papa.

Here’s a picture where you can see the quilting better:

The quilting was exactly what I wanted, done by That Quilter.

The quilt wasn’t completed until Elena was well over a year old.  We had to wait for some of the blocks through the mail, and since there was no hard deadline, they were slow in coming.  And then of course was the debate on how to put the 3.5″ blocks together!

We finally decided to go simple & modern and just sashed them with 1.5″ finished strips, and thus had 6″ finished blocks and put it together for a 48″ x 54″ quilt.

3 generations helped piece this together: my Mom, me and Elena herself!:

Eek!  Look at those great chubby cheeks!  I forgot how much I miss them!  And skinnier me!  I know how much I miss that!

I just scanned in these photos — I guess Elena was around 4 or 5 months old in these pictures.

I also put this quilt in the Austin Area Quilt Guild show in September 2008 in a two-person category, but no prizes this time.  (I was robbed! hee!)  Elena was *very* upset at me taking the quilt off her wall and dropping it off at the show, but was thrilled to see it hanging with all the other “woogies” at the show:

I obviously didn’t enforce the no-touching rule for her own quilt!

After doing this, I totally wished I had thought of a signature quilt for when I got married.  That would have been so much cooler than the never-looked-at guest book!