Something for Lucy

There's a little story behind this baby quilt.

 A couple of years ago, my son's girlfriend Jamie was a bridesmaid in her friend's wedding.  It was a summer wedding and the bridesmaids wore knee-length, strapless dresses in either a deep fuchsia pink or a bright green.
Fast forward to December 31, 2012 when my son Joe finally proposed and presented Jamie with a lovely diamond engagement ring.   Within a few hours of the proposal, her friend gave birth to a baby girl named Lucy.

Jamie asked if I could make a quilt out of the bridesmaids dresses.  The girls didn't care if I cut up the dresses since they figured they would never wear them again.  The dresses looked like silk, but I wasn't sure since the tags had been cut off.  I knew I would have to wash and dry the dresses to make sure it was suitable  for a baby.
After 12 washings, the color-catcher was still coming out deep pink.  I knew I couldn't make the quilt out of the dresses since the dye was just going to ruin any other fabrics in the quilt.

Plan B was to find fabric that matched the dresses.  I think I succeeded.  The center panel of this quilt is from a line called Gypsy Bandana.  I think the dark pink print is from the same collection.  Some of the other prints are from a Moda collection called Snap Pop.  I added some solids in there as well.

I stitched around the designs in the center panel and then just stitched-in-the-ditch on the rest of the quilt. I added the baby's name to some of the blocks.

The binding is the dark pink.  I kept the backing fairly simple since the front was very busy.

I did, however, get to use some of the dress fabric.  I made a gift bag for the quilt using one of my favorite patterns.

I used the green lining from one of the dresses for the inside of the bag.  (The green silk turned brown when I washed it.)

Joyful stitching,
jane

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