Started a New Quilt

I have started yet another grandbaby quilt!  This one is for Grandbaby #8, a girl, who is due in mid-July but is actually kind of expected in June because of issues her mom has had in previous pregnancies.

There's so much to tell in relation to this new grandbaby. She was a Christmas surprise; as in DH and I found out about her back in late December at our family Christmas gathering.  She was also a total surprise to her parents, especially since they thought they had taken steps to ensure that there wouldn't be any more babies between them.  Turns out her dad's little snip snip came about two weeks too late. . . And so, surprise!  DS1 is going to be a dad again.

To back up a bit, DS1 (who became a widower in early April 2023), renewed a friendship he'd had since he was 8 years old.  This friend had, off and on, been quite close, and had even for a while after DS1 and K2 had moved up to MI from SC, been friends with K2 also.  This friend--she's gonna need an official this little place here name--had been through a couple of rough marriages beginning shortly after she and DS1 graduated high school (he stood up in her first wedding when he was home on leave after finishing USMC boot camp) and at the time that K2 passed away was a single mom on her own again.

She and DS1 bonded, many months after K2's death, talking about the challenges of being single parents.  After a couple of months they realized that they were talking and/or texting with each other nearly every day, and decided they might as well try being an official dating couple.  Well, time went on, and, obviously, things got more serious.

So, here we are in May 2025.  They are engaged, she and her 3 yr old son (who also needs a this little place here name) have recently moved into DS1's house, with him, K3, Toad and Rascal, and they are all learning to be a blended family.

Now that you're kinda up to speed on the situation, let's talk about this new grandbaby's quilt!

I had decided, long ago, that all of DS1's kids would have a quilt of the same pattern.  Just like all of DD1's kids all have a quilt of a particular pattern, and all of DS2's kids will have their own identifying pattern.  Likewise DD2's kids, if she ever decides to have any, will have an assigned pattern.  

Knowing that, I didn't have to spend any time coming up with a pattern.  Instead, I spent all my thoughts on choosing fabrics and pulling from my (embarrassingly large) stash.  I needed to find the 'Jesus fish' fabric that I had used in each of K3, Toad, and Rascal's quilts.  That was a self-made requirement.  Just like that fabric ties the quilts of the three siblings together, it will now tie their new sister to them. 

The next fabric that I felt must be in this quilt was the tiny pink heart-flowers that had been in K3's baby quilt.  I pulled the remnants of that fabric, bought back in 2012, from my stash and found that, unfortunately, it wasn't enough as I needed, and some of it had somehow gotten stained.  

Determined that I must find and purchase more, I set out on an internet search, only to remember that I had bought the original yard at Hobby Lobby, as I wasn't buying much fabric online back thirteen years ago.  Did Hobby Lobby still carry it?  Yes, they did!  Therefore, I needed to make a trip to Hobby Lobby!  (Oh no, not Hobby Lobby!  I could easily lose an entire day and lots of money at Hobby Lobby!  Confession: I didn't at all mind the thought of going to Hobby Lobby.)

This fabric would tie the two sisters together.  Despite the big age difference between them, I do hope they will have a fondness for each other and a good bond all their lives.

Another required fabric was something with John Deere tractors.  With the exception of Lucky, who got Disney, all of my other grandkids' baby quilts contain a John Deere print.  I pulled out remnants of each of those, looking to see if there was one that might fit in with the color scheme I had in mind for this quilt.  And what I came up with was this one,

which is also in Faline's quilt.  And so, it not just matches color palette wise with this new quilt, but by including it this time around, will tie Faline and her new girl cousin together.  Symbolic.

That brough me to three fabrics, and my design needed five.

Thinking more about the big picture of the quilt, and the tone I wanted it to have, I dug through my stash some more, auditioning about a dozen other fabrics, before finally settling on which of those would be the two needed.  Here, in order of how they will be in the quilt, are the final five.

Right after Easter, I was able to get all the squares cut out (had to wait until I could make that trip to Hobby Lobby, LOL).  This week, I sewed the squares, in order, into rows.  Maybe next week I can get the rows sewn into a flimsy with borders, and hopefully after that, get it sandwiched and quilted together.  I'd like to have the entire quilt finished by the end of the month.  Being that I also have two horses in training in May, and an entire 1/4 acre garden to plant, getting an entire baby quilt sewn from start to finish in the next 30 days is going to take conscious effort and strict scheduling of my time. 

Along the way, hopefully I can come up with blog names for the four new people joining my family.  Because that's kind of a big deal, at least to me.  I didn't ever think my family would grow quite so quickly!