A Vintage Briar Rose Baby Quilt

This is one of  my most favorite quilts... ever.  

After making Elyse's "Briar Rose" quilt, I had the lavender colorway of the line remaining.  I thought it would be enough to stitch up a nice, baby-sized quilt using this tutorial.

So I stitched up all I had.  And wouldn't you know it?  Not big enough!  But, my local quilt shop was (and still is!) having a great sale on many of the same fabrics.  So off I went and bought a few more quarter yard cuts.  (Can you believe I left the quilt shop having spent only $8?!  That's some serious restraint, people.)

I also dug into the stack of the few FQ Kona solids that I own.  And I found that some of those hues go just swimmingly with this line.  Hence the reason that I love this quilt so much.  I think that the use of solids increases the vintage look of this line.

I still cannot get over some of these sweet scenes!  The picnic scene above, and then below, the mama bee is knitting with baby bee tucked into a basket (under a quilt!) right next to her.  Don't miss that, folks!

I did not set out to make this quilt for anyone in particular.  The fabric had just sat there long enough and started calling to me again.  (Strange, I know.)

But as I was stitching it up, and it developed this increasingly vintage look with the addition of the solids, it became clear to me that this would be for our friend, Dr. Katie.

Dr. Katie is one of the first doctors that we met at Duke.  She was on rotation as a resident for the inpatient hem/onc hall while Charlotte had a miserable, three-week stay there in late 2011.  I could tell you quite a bit about why I adore her and how we hit it off.  But I'm going to keep it short and sweet by saying that as a doctor, she is both competent and compassionate.  She also has that wonderful trait where I knew from the first time we met that as she was considering treatment plans for my child, she was thinking of her own.  I always knew that she was treating Charlotte as though she were her own child, always giving her the best care.

Dr. Katie just recently had her first baby girl.  I did not know that I was going to make her a quilt; I had not really planned on it.  But as this quilt came together, it just had to be for her.  Dr. Katie strikes me as the kind of lady who loves vintage things and would appreciate a not-bubble-gum-pink or girly-girl sort of gift.  I hope she likes that this is definitely a little girl quilt, but not in the pretty, pretty, pink princess sort of way.

When I touched base with Dr. Katie last week to ask after her and the baby, she told me that they are doing well.  The baby's name is "Nova Rose."  Really?  A vintage Briar Rose quilt for Miss Nova Rose?  I'm not sure it could be more perfect if I'd planned it!  I am about to ship it out to her, so here's crossing my fingers she finds it to be as perfect as I do.

P.S.  I did the backing in the lavender strawberries.  I love it.  Wish I had bought more...


(Linking up to Fabric Tuesday, NTT, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, and Crazy Mom Quilts.)