Hat on Top, Coat Below
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Cordelia’s Quilt
January 31, 2007
Here, finally, is the quilt for Cordelia, who at sixteen months holds the title of oldest baby to receive a quilt from me. (So much for that one year rule I have.) I meant to get it done earlier; it was on my to do list for over a year, and I remember buying fabric with this project in mind as far back as last February, but I got distracted and busy and I don’t know what all. At any rate, it’s done now, and it made a safe journey through the postal systems of both the United States and Canada, so I’m pretty happy.
The intent with this quilt was to make something that coordinated with her sister’s. In the early planning stages, Amy (mom to these girls) made a comment about maybe using white where Delphine’s was black. When I looked through my stash and found I had plenty of the print I’d used for the background of the earlier quilt but on white instead of black, it seemed like that was meant to be. Happily, I also had enough of the multi-colored print I’d used for the sashing to do a second quilt, so right there two major design decisions were made with no trouble (or fabric shopping) whatsoever. I toyed with the idea of making a different kind of star, but decided to stay with the same pattern as Delphine’s since 1), I liked the look and 2), I had experience with it so already knew how to handle the unusual angles.
When it came time to pick colors for the big stars, I decided to have Cordelia’s quilt feature the colors that Delphine’s had not, which mean mostly cool colors instead of mostly warm ones. I was happy when I realized I could do this and still have the single yellow and blue stars in diagonally opposite corners, making another connection between the two quilts (especially since I had enough of those exact fabrics on hand). That just left the lime, green, teal, and turquoise. I pulled some from my stash, but ended up having to buy some new prints too (yes, I HAD TO, it was out of my control, really). I didn’t use all the new prints I bought, although some did make it to the felt wall audition stage. For the small sashing stars, my original plan was to use pale pinks and purples (warm where I’d used pale blues and greens for Delphine’s), but the light values got lost against the white background, so I switched to dark reds and purples and that worked much better.
Then it was down to sewing and quilting and binding and labeling, about which I don’t have much to say. I used the same quilting and binding schemes as for Delphine’s quilt, but of course the colors of rayon used for the stars and fabrics for the binding were different. It wasn’t until I got it all done that I realized I’d made Cordelia’s quilt slightly bigger due to cutting the border strips a little wider, but I decided that was okay. After all, siblings don’t necessarily grow up to be the same size.