"Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take but by the moments that take your breath away?"

Author: Unknown

Sunday, February 09, 2014

Vintage Strawberry Shortcake Baby Quilt

         My niece who is now about 8 months pregnant, asked if I could make her quilt with the vintage/original Strawberry Shortcake girl. I made her sister a baby quilt a yr ago, and now its her turn.  I had a time finding the original strawberry though. Even online. Then she told me she saw it at our local Walmart. I bought it and 3 other fabrics I thought would go. I really struggled over this one tho. I wanted some soft looking. Not too bright, but the colors I chose just didnt work when I started making the blocks. So with the help of my daughter we found a print from Michael Miller Strawberry Teatime line, and another dusty green. So I started over again.
       Since the Strawberry print was small, and I wanted a focal point in the center. I decided to hand embroidery the girl on a large block in the center. I used a coloring book image and traced her onto my white block.

She turned out pretty wel. I havent done much hand embroidery in my life. Most of its been with the machine, but I thought this gave it more of a vintage look. I was enjoying the hand work so much, that I made another block with freehand drawn cupcakes topped with a strawberry in the corners. 
      Here is the block that its all tying into:
Not wanting to stop all the fun just yet, I decided to embroider a block on the top with the words "Berry Sweet", and added some flowery vines, a teeny little butterfly, and a strawberry.
Here is the final product minus the binding. I just finished machine quilting it. Talk about instant gratification.
Now I need to decide on a binding color.  I auditions a few different colors in the pic below. Got any recommendations to help me out ?  :)