Miss D

Judith DeRitter, or Ms. D as we called her, was the house mother for my sorority when I was in college. I loved Ms. D and visited with her daily. I always enjoyed our chats and her endless wisdom. I think she passed away a few years ago and I wish I had a chance to tell her how important to me she was during that time in my life. I can only hope she knew. Elizabeth and I were sorority sisters. The newest addition to her family, Daisy or Miss D as I’ve been referring to her, was born in October on what would have been her great-grandmother’s 100th birthday. Pretty cool that I get to have two special Miss D’s in my lifetime.

A year and a half ago I made a quilt for Elizabeth’s son when he was born. I had very little time to put the quilt together so I used Atkinson Designs Yellow Brick Road pattern. It’s quick, easy, and above all, looks really great when it’s finished. I also like that you can incorporate more than the suggested number of fabrics for variety.  Since I’m not one for always following the rules that worked out well for me.

Fast forward a few months (10 or so, but we aren’t counting) and Elizabeth found out she was having a girl.  She chose a great palate for Miss D’s room. Pink and green. But sophisticated with black and white ticking so she could grow into it. Elizabeth asked me to incorporate the fabrics she was using in the nursery. Together the fabrics looked great for the room but to make a quilt I needed at least one piece of fabric that incorporated ALL those colors. Alas, an afternoon digging through my stash and a quick trip to my favorite quilt shop and I had a quilt.  At least the parts for a quilt. I found a great Oriental fabric that incorporated all the colors in the fabrics Elizabeth had given me and a few others so the quilt would really sing. And sing it does! I love this quilt! Seriously. It’s going to be painful for me to give it away. But I can visit with it from time to time, I suppose. lol.

I made the top and put on the border but it needed something. So I ripped out the border (where would I be without my seam ripper?) and put in the small ticking inner border. I sort of had no choice but to do it that way. I hadn’t ordered enough fabric for the back and I really didn’t want to go back to the quilt shop to buy more fabric for the border. It turns out that the small black and white ticking accent was perfect! It’s subtle but really adds just the right amount of zip! I used the ticking for the bias binding, too. It’s nice to carry that pattern out to the edges of the quilt, though sewing the ticking down through the minkee, especially in the corners, was a bit of a challenge.

I normally don’t back quilts with minkee but Elizabeth had me put minkee on the back of the quilt for Elliot and  we wanted to keep an even playing field since children can be so darn particular. Minkee really is nice on the back of quilts for kids since it’s so soft and lovable. Plus I found the perfect minkee – lime green with darker green dots. I couldn’t resist! Because I had minkee on the back of the quilt I chose to tie it, and since I’d tied Elliot’s quilt….

I tied the center of the quilt with pink perle cotton. Then I ran out! Argh! So I tied the outside border with white perle cotton. I tied in the center of each white chrysanthemum so it’s a little less obvious. Necessity really is the mother of all creativity!

I hope Elizabeth and Daisy like the finished product!