My first quilt :)

[noodle-bug]

I've never really done machined patchwork before (i sew mostly by hand - embroidery projects and the like), but decided to give it a whirl for this garden trellis design, made using a moda jelly roll. I received the 'Hope' collection for Chrimbo (The fabrics from this collection were reproduced from a Lemoyne star quilt from upstate New York, circa 1830-40. A note attached to the quilt stated that fabrics were from the dress the maker wore the day she met her future husband. Ain't that sweet?) from my Aunt & Uncle, who shortly after announced that they were going to be grandparents, so i wanted to make a baby quilt for their grandchild.
 
I was... a little doubtful - I thought the pre-cut nature of the strips would be constraining, but actually for this pattern it was really useful; saved hours of faffing around with a rotar cutter. And the fabrics themselves were lovely quality, soft and begging to be handled (once I worked up the nerve to undo the bow and unroll them; kinda like approaching the first page of a fresh sketchbook - a beginning laden with potential best approached with due consideration). Blue and brown is one of my favourite colour combos, and really lends itself to traditional patterns like this, so away I went.

The original concept was to quilt on Ivy design over the top of the finished patchwork, to make an Ivy Growing Up Garden Trellis blanket in remembrance of my Grandma Ivy, who passed away in December, since this would have been her first great-grandchild. Unfortunately after a bit of practice on scrap fabric i realised my long-arm skills were not up to the task - i didn't want to ruin the quilt with bad finishing. I also didn't want to send it way to a long-arming service, that felt a bit like cheating   I started doing it by hand but quickly realised that it did not look good, so I unpicked and left just one ivy leaf in the corner by my tag. I just put some little tiny stitches in at the places where the blocks join to tie the whole thing together. as you can see, it's two sided. I'll do the boarder differently if/when i do another one, but other than that I'm quite pleased with it

[Antidigger]

Double sided! Amazing. I like the muted colour scheme too.

[A_Bit_Crafty]

Double sided???  I bow to your patience!  It's lovely.  I really like the little ivy leaf and the colors.

[Acherontia Aether]

It's beautiful. I love the design I'm thinking of doing something like this for my next quilt but not random.

[Eamea]

Nice work!  I especially like the inclusion of the single ivy leaf.  It's a nice nod to your late grandma, and it complements the quilt rather than detract from it.

[Linnybelle]

That's lovely!  Blue and brown is one of my favorite color combos too.  The ivy is a fantastic touch too and I'm sure it will be treasured.