Pay It Forward Movement

Hello all!  It has been quite some time since I have actually written something.  Now that the holidays are over, I have to get busy making two baby quilts!  I am making one quilt for a good friend who is due on March 1st.  She decided to go old school and not find out what she is having.  This is fun and all, but it doesn't make quilt planning very easy.  Finding gender neutral fabric sounds easy enough, but it's not as easy as it seems.  Every fabric I picked up seemed to still lean to one gender or another.  After searching and searching, I finally decided on TWO sets of fabric.  I still don't know which one I will use.  One is really dull, and one is REALLY bright.  The other quilt I am making is for a baby that hasn't even been conceived (let me explain...).  I follow the blogs of three wonderful ladies that I had the chance to meet this November (Mama Laughlin, Holly, and Aly).  They decided to get together and spread some Christmas cheer with a project called the "Pay It Forward Movement".  The purpose of the movement is to tell the stories of families in need, not just food or money, but also prayers and other kind deeds.  They each told a new story every day for a week or two of a different family that their readers could help.  One day Aly posted a story (you can read it here) about a woman named Kim who was diagnosed with terminal cancer.  She is the mother to two twenty-somethings.  Her daughter is pregnant with her first child and her son is engaged to be married and also planning on starting a family at some point.  She expressed to a good friend, that other than not getting to meet her grandchildren, one of her biggest regrets is that she could not make them baby blankets.  Her friend wrote in to Aly and asked if there were any quilters that would be willing to make a baby quilt for each one of Kim's children.  Since I have been getting attached to the quilts I make and don't want to give them away, I decided that the next quilt I make needs to be a gift for someone.  My theory is that it will be easier to let it go if I know that it belongs to someone else.  When I read this story, I knew that this would be the first quilt I would give away.  I contacted Aly who put me in contact with Jennifer (Kim's friend) and we decided that I would make the quilt for Kim's son and his fiance (another woman volunteered to make the quilt for Kim's daughter).  Jennifer is planning on surprising each of them with the quilts at the daughter's baby shower in February.  So obviously, this ALSO needs to be gender neutral.  As you can see, I follow quite a few sewing blogs (the list is on the right) and I check blogger often.  I follow a blog called Crafty Blossom, if you don't know about this blog, you are missing out.  She makes the most stylish, modern quilts.  I just love them!  She has a herringbone quilt that is just amazing.

from Crafty Blossom.  This is the inspiration.

The plan is to make Kim's son and fiance a herringbone quilt.  I have chosen to do the herringbone pattern in a cream and green.  The backing is a really cute fabric with bugs (cute ones, not gross ones) all over.  The binding will be done in an odd blackish brown (think earthy).  I think it will all look great when I get it together.  I have never done triangles before.  I have made a couple of practice pieces and they went pretty smooth.  I hope the actual quilt top comes together just as easy.  If you have any tips on working with half-square triangles, feel free to leave them in the comments!  I'll update again once I get the top together.

these are for the herringbone quilt