Quilts for my boys

When I started quilting, I made quilts for my boys. They were toddlers at the time, and now they are seven and nine years old. That’s old enough that when they use their first quilts, their feet and shoulders aren’t always covered at the same time. Last spring, I decided they needed new quilts. Then I decided they should be twin size. Making two twin quilts before their fall birthdays was ambitions, and naturally those tasks fell by the wayside as deadlines came and went, along with class samples and art pieces. I tried to finish them for Christmas, but December is always too busy to plan on finishing anything without a deadline. Plus, these are meant to be forever quilts, so I wanted them to be thoughtful and well constructed for lots of washes and love. Oh, and did I mention twin size? So it is a full calendar year later (and I used the help of a long arm quilter), but I finished two twin quilts for my boys this month. Everyone is happy. As for the cherry on the hot fudge sundae, It delights me that they are each partially designed by the boys themselves.

Miles loves books about animals, and when he saw a picture on my phone of Elizabeth Hartman’s hedgehog pattern, he asked for a giant blue hedgehog.  I decided to set it in a limited-palette improv medallion (Cirrus Sky, Rain, Turquoise, Lagoon, and Ocean), in which I slightly changed the rules for each border.

The back has another of his favorite animals, a llama (also from Elizabeth Hartman), which is set into yummy dark blue Robert Kaufman flannel with the addition of Cirrus in Bark and Ivory.

Eli will read, watch, and draw anything that has dragons in it. I gave him the choice of a few dragon paper pieced patterns for his quilt, and he chose one by Kristy from Quiet Play. I made it in three different colors and realized that they would make a beautiful rainbow if I arranged them in color order. Eli noticed that too and asked about rainbow triangles, so the Rainbow Dragon Triangle Extravaganza was born.

I started with flying geese, then used the “waste” to make tinier triangles in hourglass blocks. then I made bigger half square triangles and arranged them all randomly, spreading them out less densely as I moved toward the edges.

The back has another Robert Kaufman flannel and a triforce from his current obsession, the Legend of Zelda.

The rainbow binding was also a request by the nine-year-old. I love how happy it looks, and it is gorgeous bunched up on a bed.

Both were quilted by the awesome Jess at Threaded Quilting. I got to meet her in person at QuiltCon, and it was so quick and easy to work together.

It’s such a great feeling to know that as I keep making quilts that my own family is warm and happy in their own custom cotton cocoons.