Big D

Included in the long list of things people love to ask moms twins, everyone always wants to know who was born first. I’m not sure why. What’s the fascination? They were born within moments of each other, does anyone think that makes such a difference in the “firstborn?”  That said, I’m not the kind of person who plans on hiding it from my kids if they want to know.

My son, Daniel, was born first. A whopping 45 seconds before his sister (they don’t mess around in the operating room!).  And so, for today, he gets the first post on his quilt.  Think that’ll cost me much in therapy later on?

Daniel’s quilt is primarily sock monkey prints, from Erin Michael’s various collections for Moda (5 Funky Monkeys, Goodnight Monkey, etc.).  I’ve been slowly collecting a bunch of them over the last year, and they all went into this quilt.  For good measure, I also threw in six coordinating Kona solids (buttercup, cornflower, tomato, school bus, grass, green tea).  The blocks are crazy nine-patches, made using this tutorial from Oh, Fransson.

It’s easy to follow and very forgiving. I started out with 10″ squares of fabric and had plenty of leeway in trimming them down to end up at 8″ (finished) blocks.  It goes really fast, making nine blocks at a time.  If you’re usually one to press seams to the side, however, this is one time when you’d benefit from pressing open.  Those last two cuts through the entire stack of fabric are a little tricky, and would be even worse with the extra thickness of side-pressed seams.

I sashed it in a great shade of blue (Kona Evening).  I was a little lazy when I basted it, though. I figured the top was “good enough” and didn’t iron it again before basting.  That was a stupid, rookie mistake, and I ended up with some annoying puckering when I quilted it. Not the end of the world, but it bugs me, for sure.

The back is mainly Kona Grass green, with a single strip of the remaining crazy nine-patches.  Quilting is intentionally wobbly vertical lines, roughly 1/2-3/4″ apart (I used my walking foot as a rough guide).

Anyways, I love it, and I love that my son loves it.  I love that it is fun and silly and appropriate for an almost-three-year-old, without being excessively babyish and something he’ll outgrow in style before he outgrows it in size.  I love seeing my big boy snuggled up underneath it. My Daniel / Dan / Mr. D / Big D (and, formerly, Señor Fussy-Pants).