Tumbling Tree Frogs

Perhaps they're more tree slugs than tree frogs, but I like them nonetheless. That turquoise sluggy sort of thing on the brown fabric, I just liked it. I don't know why, since I'm no fan of slugs, but the fabric variety worked for me.

I knew I would design this quilt around my friendly slug (see, it's even smiling), though I had no idea what pattern I would use or what other fabrics I would select. I even picked it out before I knew the child's name which, as it turns out, is Ilan which means tree. All very appropriate. And, actually I knew the name before I was supposed to because I am a good name guesser or, in this case, more of a good listener in name conversations. My ears, they work well. And, yes, I am a bit punchy as a write this.

When I first pulled fabric from my stash, I pull all the wrong fabrics. They were too light or looked too washed out next to the slugs. I realized I needed vibrant and so I returned the first batch to my fabric boxes and started anew. The second time around I started with the oranges and then picked the blues and greens. It turns out it was the blues and greens that tripped me up the first time. With this second round, I ended up with a nice mix from multiple designers' collections -- there is some Anna Maria Horner, some Laura Gunn, some Sandi Henderson, some Erin McMorris, some Joel Dewberry, some Arcadia, and a couple more hanging out in my stash. 

I used Amanda Jean's tumbler tutorial which is straightforward and easy to follow. Just be careful with your fingers when using a rotary blade and cardboard template. Some unintentional slicing occurred, but nothing some cold water, pressure, and a bandaid or three couldn't fix. Luckily the blood stayed far far away from the fabric.

The quilt ended up a little more square than I originally intended. I laid out all the rows and there was a nice rectangle but then the seam allowances intervened and the shape rearranged itself, just enough to be less 4x6 (or pick your favorite golden ratio) than initially intended. As for quilting, I stitched 1/4" offset from each of the vertical seams, as you can sort of see outlined on the back in the above image. I really love this pieced back, in part because I really love that orange fabric (and now have about a 2" strip left, sad but good to actually use the fabric in my stash). I like the line of tumblers separating the 2 big pieces of fabric and well, I'm just pleased with how it all came together.

Garden Party binding sealed the quilt in. I knew I liked the colors of the binding, but I wasn't originally sure how the print would work in its binding role. I think it acquits itself quite well. After all, it includes not one but two shades of blue and how could that ever go wrong.

And the sun started to emerge as I took photos -- outside for the first time in 2010 first time in 2010 without snow on the ground. It should have made its way to California by now. This is definitely not what I imagined the quilt would look like when I plucked the tree frogs/tree slugs as my principle/origin fabric, but I love how it turned out. Perhaps I'll make one for myself.