Monkey in the Middle

For some reason, Kirsten's hubby is obsessed with monkeys, so somehow, that became the theme for Kirsten's baby shower. In the past, I have made many baby quilts that were just a yard and a half each of 2 different fabrics, one for the front and one for the back. Instead of quilting, I just tied with yarn and usually used (prairie) points for the edging. Kirsten has one of these quilts that I made when she was a baby as well as one that my best friend gave me for a baby shower gift. These quilts saw lots and lots of use and love and Kirsten still has them packed away in her cedar chest. They have held up and are wonderful snuggly quilts. This was my plan for Kirsten's baby and I decided it would be fun to purchase the fabric and then use it for the table cloth for her baby shower. This was before she introduced me to the evil LQS :) So we headed to Joann's and the only cute fabric that we could find that had monkeys was decidedly NOT girly fabric. But we decided that adding the hot pink as the backing color would make the quilt girly enough. While Kirsten was settling into life with a new baby, she had lots of time to discover quilt blogs and of course, introduced me to them and I was hooked! But I was still adjusting to the random, wonky quilts that are so popular now. I was raised on structured, matchy matchy patchwork quilts. In fact, a really long time ago, I attended a "Quilt In A Day" class at my local Clothworld (now Joanns) and started making log cabin quilts using that method. Somewhere I think I still have a half finished double irish chain, but I digress. I couldn't imagine finding fabric that would go with both the monkey fabric and also the hot pink solid fabric, but then Kirsten told me about a LQS that she had discovered so I headed over there for what has proved to be a nearly weekly pilgrimage. I used to sew, LOTS, I even sewed the model garments for Clothworld's displays, so we were in fabric stores very frequently when Kirsten was little. We were there enough that by the time Kirsten was about 3 or 4, she knew my favorite fabric store as soon as we pulled into the parking lot. But I have to say I LOVE our favorite LQS! So, I found 2 other fabrics that I thought would compliment each other as well as the 2 fabrics I already had and got to work. And that was the beginning of a rekindled fabric obsession! The result was this cute quilt that I hope Kirsten and Zoey will love for a very long time.

I fussy-cut the monkeys for the "Monkey in the Middle". This is a close up of my favorite monkey on this fabric.

I had made one extra block just in case, so I decided to use it on the back. The fabric for the back wasn't quite wide enough and I love the "new" pieced backs, so I just made a checkerboard strip and surrounded it with more of the sashing fabric. And of course, I labeled it. That way in 50 years or so, Zoey's granddaughter won't have to try to figure out who made this quilt like Kirsten and I did back here.

Okay Kirsten, you can have Zoey's quilt now.

Tracy