My sister is having a baby and I designed this baby quilt for her. I'm very proud of it; it's the most original quilt I've made (and it was a pain sometimes!). I love balloons, and we went to the Albuquerque balloon fiesta last year, which this is supposed to represent. You get up really early, before sunrise, to go out there, and wait for the mass ascension of hundreds of balloons. It's really amazing.
The sun is a partial Russian Sunflower. I have a thing for that block because I have a quilt passed down from my great-grandmother that is a Russian Sunflower. I've wanted to try one for some time. Turns out it is still a little beyond my skill level. Maybe you can tell in the pics, maybe not, but there are quite a few tucks and wrinkles in the green points of the sun.
The quilting also gave me fits. I'm not as good at FMQ as I'd like to be, and I used a stencil, which it turns out is just not a good method for me, although now I'm better at it, and I spent the money so I'll probably use it again.
The lunch sack I made from a pattern I found online at
http://melissaesplin.com/home/2008/0...-for-everyone/ It was also for my sister, as her birthday gift, since she takes her lunch to work and had been using a Wal-Mart bag (It's recycling, but not very cute).