A is for Angela Quilt Finished and Delivered

A is for Angela

For young daughter of co-worker Margarita A.

Animal/Alphabet print provided by Margarita

Original design

54" square

Completed on 12/21/2011

A is for Angela - Close-up

I finished A is for Angela late Wednesday night, in time to deliver to co-worker Margarita on Thursday so she could give the quilt to Angela for Christmas. (In my office, most of us work 10 hour days Monday through Thursday.) I started sewing the quilt last Saturday night, completing the quilt in less than a week.

Margarita provided the animal/alphabet print, and asked that I bring out the pink in the print. I chose simple checkerboard blocks, mostly because I used a double four-patch for Angela's brother's baby quilt that I made years ago. I chose 8" finished checkerboards because the 2" squares look dainty, and the alternating 8" plain squares would show off the theme print without chopping it up too much.

I chose a medium pink solid and found a nice pale pink with little dots that I thought was girly. For the narrow border I considered a red like the alphabets in the print, but I went with a burgundy found in the dotted fabric.

My original idea was to use the pink as the wide outer border, but after the main part of the quilt top was done, the theme blocks seemed to disappear. I auditioned the theme print as the border and decided to go with it and I'm glad I did. The theme blocks don't look thrown in, the checkerboards don't outshine the print, and the whole design seems cohesive.

Back of A is for Angela

I don't usually do anything fancy for the backs of quilts. I generally choose a solid color that coordinates with the quilt top, admittedly because solids are inexpensive. In this case there was plenty of theme print, so I used it for the back. There wasn't quite enough to cover, so I added some of the medium pink solid. It works, and gave me a clear space to write a little label, which would have been difficult in the busy print. (I write on the actual fabric backing rather than attach a separate label.)

Margarita was very happy with the quilt, and I hope Angela enjoys snuggling up with it for many years to come.

Design notes