I am very fortunate to have three wonderful grandchildren.  The oldest is Mr. J, then comes Miss L and last but not least Miss M.  All three of them belong to my oldest daughter and her husband.  Mr. J is seven, home schooled and thrilled with everything Lego.  Miss L is my ballerina.  She adores all things remotely related to dancing, dolls and above all PINK.  Miss M is only two.  Her two most favorite things in this world are her Mommy and Elmo.  Spending time with these three is always an adventure, never boring and always, always exciting.

Since starting my own long arm quilting business it has been my desire to create a very special quilt for each of my grandchildren.  No specific plans have been made as to patterns, fabrics or whom will be first to receive their hand-made hug from Nana.

Recently I traveled to Rockford, Illinois to visit Acorn Quilts.  While there I came across this luscious fabric, in a sale bin.

My mind began racing with ideas as my eyes lit up at the colors.  Immediately my oldest granddaughter, Miss L, popped into my mind.  She adores pink.  Being the fun-loving sweetheart that she is I just knew this fabric would send giggles through her tummy. I grabbed for the carefully rolled bundle of joy and added it to my purchase.  This was going to be my inspiration.  Also added to my selections were the pink and white polka dot fabric for a border and backing and an adorable aqua piece for binding.

This was going to be a simple quilt.  No special pattern was needed because I just knew Miss L would love anything that I would make her.  Besides the floral print was wonderful all by itself.  Anything that I might try to do to it, aside from quilting, would detract from its beauty.

Strips were cut from the pink and white polka dot material and sewn to all four edges of the pink floral fabric.  The leftover polka dot fabric was not quite large enough for a backing.  Quilts loaded onto long arm quilt machines need extra inches added to the backing to accommodate the pinning process.  Unfortunately this was not taken into consideration when the yardage was calculated at the store.  Rather than purchasing a whole new piece of fabric I decided to add inches via a Sophie charm pack by Chez Moi for Moda purchased from Loose Threads of Milton, Wisconsin.  The charm pack not only included squares of fabric made from the identical print as my pink floral it also included fabrics that very nicely complimented it as well.  All except three charm squares were combined to increase the measurements of the backing.  Pictured here is a sampling of the added squares.

I loaded the quilt sandwich onto my Tin Lizzie Ansley 26 long arm quilt machine and began the process of quilting Miss L’s surprise.  Her quilt, with borders, measures 39 x 48 1/2.  Since it is not very large the quilting process took very little time.

It was kind of sad that the quilting went so quickly.  I really had fun adding flowers and hearts to an over-all loop-d-loop design.  If you look closely you can see one of the flowers.

Miss L’s quilt has since been removed from my machine.  All that is currently left to do is the hand stitching on the adorable aqua binding.  As soon as I have the binding finished I will share the completed project.

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Thank you for sharing in my enthusiasm.  I’m linking up with Freshly Pieced.  Be sure to stop by her blog and check things out.

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BTW my list of WIP can be found here