Grandma Vicki's quilt (or lack of blogging due to Christmas presents)

Vicki had asked me a few months ago to make her a quilt that made her think of her grandchildren. She left how I did that or any color choices up to me. She did mention that she had a burgundy recliner where she planned to curl under the quilt. That was it. I toyed with the idea of names in the quilting, photos, etc. I decided that I did want to include faces, but I wanted it to be a bit subtle.

I decided to make log cabinish blocks that mostly read as solid color. Vicki likes pink, so that started the color palette. I love so many of Amy Butler's pale pink and yellow fabrics, so I decided on the yellow for the center. There are 8 grandchildren, but I wanted a square, so I made 9 yellow blocks for the center, surrounded with pink.

For the quilting, I outlined the yellow squares, and then quilted a line portrait in burgundy of each of the children on a square. I'd made quilted portraits before, using tracing paper to sew over and then removing. This time, following these suggestions from Kristin, I used a tear away stabilizer. I'm not sure which I liked more, but I remember with both feeling like I was ripping out the stitches as I removed the paper. I wonder if I would prefer transferring my drawing directly onto the fabric. I'm not sure, though. For the pink squares, I did a simple stipple with variegated pink thread. Anyway, here are a few closeups.

The center square says "Grandchildren"

My pictures aren't great. The weather wasn't great for photos, and I was completing this down to the wire. Anyway, I'm happy with the completed quilt. I think I would like to do quilted portraits in other quilts, but perhaps as a continuous line drawing. I practiced doing that as well, but thought it didn't work as well for the children.

Of course, a photo of the back. The finished quilt is 75" square.