Pretty in Pink

Olivia, my DIL, has an older sister that I am very fond of.  Courtney has 2 adorable children. I attended the baby shower for her daughter more than 3 years ago.  We all made blocks for a quilt for her.  Her Mother's friend organized this project.   I can't remember which brand of markers we used, but I wouldn't recommend them. She was planning on making  them into a quilt. But we all know how life gets in the way sometimes.  I respectfully kept my distance. 

After about 1 year, there was no quilt.  I told Olivia  that I would be happy to turn the blocks into a quilt. We all waited and we all hoped the blocks would be turned over to me so this little girl could have her keepsake. No blocks.

 

Then, there was the fire.  The blocks were damaged from smoke.  The house had to be rebuilt. 

It was recommended that the blocks be dry cleaned.  I know that this advice was not from a textile conservator.  The bad news was the blocks turned a blotchy yellow and there was some bleeding of the ink. The good news was that there was no lingering odor and I now had the quilt blocks in my possession and it was time to make a quilt for Elyse.

 

There were two more issues.  This adorable block was really damaged.

 I decided the way to fix the problem was to give that big bunny a BIG carrot.

I even added the greenery.

 

The other issue was that there was a very odd number of clocks - 39 to be exact.  That's a very odd number of blocks to turn into a quilt.

 

I played and played to achieve a suitable layout. It's actually one of the most enjoyable aspects of quilting for me.  It's solving a puzzle. The best thing is when the solution to a difficult situation makes the finished product even better.

 

So to fill in 3 empty spaces, I added her name across the top:

 

I used machine fusible applique:

 

I framed each block with pink turning it into a scrappy keepsake for Elyse.

Who knew that I owned this much pink. (Thank you Kelly.)

 

 

I added a border and had it machine quilted by Susie R so that it can be used on a little 3 year old's bed and hopefully loved for a very long time.  It's fun to come to the rescue.