Order Up! Fireflies with a Side of Scrap

My First Panel Quilt

In 2011, we hit the East Tennesee Quilt Shop Hop. As long as we were in the general area, I stopped by to visit a dear friend in Kentucky. It was June and the fireflies came out as the sun went down. I'd never been in the South during the summer and that particular insect isn't common in Washington state. One of the girls, in a very polite southern way, gently made fun of me and then caught a blinking, glowing bug for me to hold.

Fast forward to the 2014 Western Washington Quilt Shop Hop. Although not a theme fabric, I spotted a baby quilt made with a panel from Wee Wander fabric collection. The pattern is available as a free download from Sarah Jane Studios. It reminded me of our pleasant time hanging out in the holler and I was wishing I had a baby who needed a special quilt.

What a coincidence! My friend from Kentucky announced a few weeks later that she was expecting her first grandbaby. As soon as I knew if we were creating a baby boy or baby girl gift, we got right on it.

We invite you to follow along:

We started with this panel -- the one I fell in love with when I saw it at The Quilting Loft in Ballard. I didn't buy it then because, well you quilters know how a stash can accumulate... When I wanted to get it, it was gone. Although this fabric line had completely sold out in the greater Seattle area, we found it online. Whew!

I've already added a pink feathered border. Now it's time to come up with matching fabrics to complete the scrappy borders and the friendship blocks. Wish us luck!

In a scrap quilt, half the fun might be looking through those hoarded and already-cut-to-size squares for the perfect color path. This year, the process was even more interesting because we had a small and enthusiastic helper. These are his choices from the bin. I may have added and subtracted a few blocks of my own.

Next came sewing the half-triangle squares for the friendship blocks.Since the squares needed to be 2 1/2", I started with slightly larger than 3" squares, marked the diagonals and sewed a scant 1/4" seam each side of the mark. I cut on the mark and pressed each set open. Finally I trimmed each square to size. Quite the scrap pile for such a small pile of finished pieces, isn't it?

Because this precious grandbaby is a girl (and yes, I sometimes fall victim to gender stereotyping), we choose to use more pink and coral and less blue and green. A little arranging, a bit of sewing, a touch of the iron and we have a finished block. This batch of friendship squares is enough to make more than one firefly quilt. Wonder if another baby might need one...

Arranging and piecing the border

And finally, a look at the quilting. This was S's first time on the long arm. With a bit of encouragement and lots of shared laughter, I think she did a great job.

Mailed off to Miss Sweetness the first part of January accompanied by Eric Carle's "The Very Lonely Firefly."