Last week I got to give my good friend Sean and his wife a quilt for their new baby (these are the quilts I gave their old dusty twin sons, born a couple months after Bloomer). I also gave them a onesie that said “New!” on it, because I thought it was funny, and also they live on the equator now and it’s never not humid and sticky, so it didn’t matter what month it fits the baby. Anyway, now that they are safely on the other side of the planet again and I believe that he’s finally shown it to his wife, here is the quilt!

To refresh: Sean is of Irish descent, so the center piece is a Celtic knot and the rest of the pattern is an Double Irish Chain. I believe their 3rd son will be named Gigantor, as he must grow into this quilt that turned out WAY bigger than I anticipated. Seriously, it takes up almost my whole couch. On the plus side, Sean tells me that his 3 year olds use the quilts I made them to built forts, so at least Son #3 won’t have an inferiority complex about his fort as it will be the size of Ranikot (thank you, Wikipedia, for the answer to “world’s largest fort”!)

Here’s a close up of the center:

I got the pattern for the knot here, and blew it up to fit a center block of about 20″. It was fusible appliqued, and the quilting was done around each piece of the knot. It looks really neat from the back, which I conveniently forgot to take a picture of before I gave it to him. Whoops.

To keep it a little fun and not completely sappy, see if you can figure out the mildly creepy black fabric:

Monster eyes! Sure to give the poor child nightmares for YEARS. The quilting in the rest of the body of the quilt is just a simple meandering pattern in gray. The back of the quilt is a gray fabric with a small dot and line pattern, called “Zen Sticks”, I think. So at least if the boy freaks out about eyes on the walls and voices talking to him, they can flip the quilt over to the “zen” side.

Basically, I found an 8 foot unfinished drapery rod, painted it the color of the wall (which I just painted this blue color- it’s not quite so vivid as it shows up here), and hung it up. I used some suspender clips that were marketed for pacifier clips so it wouldn’t damage the quilts, and made some 1″ wide fabric loops to hang it from the rod.

I knew that my Christmas quilt would be 80″ x 65″, and I plan on that being the biggest one I’d hang up here. This particular quilt I saw in a quilting magazine with the fabric sold as a kit, and I fell in love with it. Here’s a close-up of the center panel.

I did a meandering stitch for the center flag and the outer border. I did some diagonal running stitches on the squares surrounding the center flag, and did some stars along the eagle cornerstones. Stars and stripes! I’m so literal!

I hope to have different quilts to hang up throughout the year, and I knew this one would work for a June/July quilt. I’ve got an August-y sort of one planned already (hint: it’s RED), and have some ideas for a fall-ish quilt, too. Of course, I have to fit in finishing Bloomer’s bed quilt and the king-sized quilt for my parents by Thanksgiving, but since these would be smaller wall-hangings it should work okay.

Of course, I have some clothing projects to do for Bloomer and myself to fit in there, too, but at least all these things will keep me busy! I’ve always told myself I work better under pressure, and I suppose now I get to prove it again.