the panda quilts: #29: squares for baby claire

This quilt was made for one of my husband's co-workers. His baby girl was due to arrive soon and I wanted to make something adorable. I had a small piece of a pink woodland fabric (riley blake "enchant" by natalie lymer) and thought it would be great for this quilt. Bunnies and foxes and hedgehogs and deer! 

I had some leftover squares cut from the circle baby quilt I made last year, and the colors matched perfectly. I've had that other floral fabric in my stash for years and the colors worked well with it, too. The coral/pink could be quite brash if not balanced with something more subtle. 

a very simple design, but adorable factor: achieved! 

the panda quilts: #28: seven seas half-square triangles

I was born in southern California and went to the same school with the same kids from 1st grade until the middle of 5th grade, when my family moved to Tennessee. One of my best friends was a girl named Ronnie. She was the middle of 3 sisters just like me, and I have a memory of bringing my cassette of the Cure "Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me" to her house in the Hollywood Hills. After I moved, we wrote letters to each other for a few years, but the communication trailed off during high school and was non-existent during our college years. Flash forward to the invention of the Internet! And Myspace! And at once, I was reconnected with a slew of people from my grade school days in California. In 2008, I took a trip out west for a mini-reunion of sorts - a group of us went to the school carnival. During that trip, I stayed with Ronnie and it was like our friendship hadn't skipped a beat in 21 years. I knew just because you were friends with someone at 10 doesn't mean you'll have any sort of connection at 31 - but we did! During that trip, Ronnie told me she was expecting her first child. A second child followed shortly after the first. And in 2011, I was out in California again and got to meet baby #3 a few days after she was born. Which brings us to this quilt - for Ronnie's baby number 4. I gifted Jellycat stuffed animals to all the other babies, but that was before my quilting days, and I was happy to make something for her new son, born in May.

I played around with several half-square triangle layouts...

...and finally settled on this one:

 I wanted the Seven Seas print to be the focal point and picked the solids accordingly.

Welcome baby Xander! I hope to make it out to CA soon and meet you!