Long time coming...

I had this idea for an "ABC" quilt for Little Man when he was about 5 or 6 months old after I was inspired by this quilt at Pottery Barn Kids (this is no longer available). 

I didn't want to replicate this, just liked the idea of an alphabet quilt. Being a quilting virgin at the time, my mother-in-law (MIL) helped me plan out a pattern and pick out fabrics. We looked for months because I wanted the fabric of each block to represent that particular letter. Here are some of the examples of the individual blocks as I was piecing them.

A is for Animals (on a farm of course -Little Man's favorite!)

I is for Ice Cream

Z is for Zebra

And this is the backing. It's a tiny white dot on green. Joann's sells this pattern in lots of colors & I love it! It's the backing to my Christmas Quilt as well, but in red.

I forgot to mention that it's big. BIG! I didn't want a lap quilt (maybe that's because I'm almost 6 feet tall and "lap quilts" just don't work for me - quite a selfish reason). I insisted it be big enough for a twin-size bed. A bit ambitious for my first project, but I like to follow the "go big or go home!" motto.

My original goal was to complete this and give it to Little Man for his first birthday. Well, I definitely didn't make that deadline. You see, I got the quilt top pieced together sometime in the fall after his July birthday, then my MIL helped me get the batting and backing pinned together and ready for hand-quilting. It only took a few blocks to realize that I did NOT like to quilt by hand. Thankfully, my MIL finished up quilting the letters by sometime this past spring (I obviously was in no hurry). It has sat in her sewing room waiting to be finished. We only lack a simple quilting pattern in the four corners and the binding. Oh the binding...the binding that I don't know how to do. I'm really not looking forward to it either, but it's something that has to be done.

Well, TODAY is the DAY! Little Man and I are heading over to spend some time playing and quilt binding. Hoping this quilt is finished soon so we can start using it! 

We can't head over until after lunch because MIL had morning plans, so we'll be enjoying a little time like this...love a lazy morning!