my *favorite nephew* (I can say that because he's the only one- every one else in the family has girls
) is expecting his first child- so had to make a couple baby quilts- one from me- (his favorite aunt *yup only aunt*) their theme is baby animals-not cartoony- so I made this cute quilt...the second quilt with the stained glass critters is going to be such a huge surprise for him! about 10 years ago while I was working on a stained glass dragonfly quilt he kept coming in the sewing room- hanging out- watching- I kept telling him he could do this if he wanted- (he was about 20 at the time) then one day he came up with these critter coloring book pages- he created each of these blocks- had a little bit of stitching left on one---life happened, he moved to Florida, more life happened- I moved too...but I kept those blocks of his stuffed in a bag (he had put them together with puffy batting & a backing when he stitched the black 'leading') years go by- I still had them in the closet.. last year he moved back home- with a wife- now they are expecting their first...and I dug that bag of critters out of the closet. I finished stitching the last block, cut them each out close to the edges & appliqued them onto this dyed flannel (also from his hanging out days-playing with dyes- this was one of his 'drip cloths') then I added new batting & a backing & quilted it. the critters are really puffy & soft- since they have the puffy batting he had originally added plus the new batting I used on the whole thing. I can't wait to see his face when he opens this one! I bet he totally forgot about them & figures they've been lost for years.
