Air Show

When your 4-year old daughter still drags around a crocheted baby blanket made by a sweet friend (who was also her and her brother's well-baby nurse in the hospital right after they were born), it's only fair to return the favor to said friend with a baby quilt for her soon-to-be born baby boy.  She and her husband were going through the process of adopting baby C#3, when they found out they were pregnant.  The adoption process has been put on hold for the time being as they get ready to welcome this surprised addition to their sweet family.  This baby is going to receive all the lovely hand-me-downs from his 2 older siblings, but he will have a blanket that is all his own.

This quilt was instantaneously designed in my head after a conversation via Facebook.  The mention of airplanes and my mind went crazy with ideas.  I knew they would be hand-appliqued and I knew I needed to figure out a way to make them look like they were flying.  This is what I came up with.  (Let me apologize for the quality of the pictures of the top...they didn't turn out as well as I hoped.  The details of the individual planes were hard to capture.)

I dug into my stash and found different shades of blues and greys that coordinated well to make up the airplanes.  The airplane templates were created from clip-art images found online.  I used cross-stitching thread to create movement in the propellers and make it look like the planes are flying/flipping through the air.   I used a large gray chevron print for the back and echoed the chevron for the quilting.

This was a fun quilt to make, especially when piecing together the airplanes and watching them come to life.