I tend to think of quilts as my big “background project”.  Smaller projects jump in, like gifts for Mother’s Day and birthdays, and once they’re done I go back to my quilt in progress.  But baby quilts, much like babies, have a timing all their own.  My current quilting project is on hold again, this time so I can work on a little quilt I’m calling Ansley’s Diamonds.

I’m using hour glass blocks set together so they’ll form diamond shapes.  The added bit of interest with this quilt is the fabric which has a nice ombre gradation to it.  I’m using just one yard of green and one yard of pink, but because of the shifting coloration there are lovely variations in value.  The blocks pictured here combine the darkest green with the lightest pink, but they’ll shift across the quilt to reverse to a paler green and deeper pink.  Hopefully that will create a feeling of movement, something that will draw the eye back and forth over the pattern.

This one is maybe a bit different for another reason — I really don’t know the recipients all that well.  I met Lucy at the gym and she’s just so sweet, and her husband Chad is, too.  They’re young and kind, having their second child but still just starting out, really.  (At least it feels that way to someone who’s been married 22 years!)  Anyway, I’m a believer in positive reinforcement, so for their kindness alone baby Ansley gets a quilt.  And if I’ve done my math right, her big sister will get a little doll quilt from the leftover squares.  Otherwise I suppose I’ll be making a scrappy doll quilt!