Baby Arizona

   
  I was recently commissioned to make a baby quilt for a special baby whose name is going to be Arizona.  Her parents lived in Casa Grande, Arizona and had recently moved to Wisconsin.
     It seems the hardest part for me is deciding on a design.  Cacti are big right now, but are they right for a baby quilt?  I was told to make it whimsical.  I spent a lot of time looking at fabrics.  I texted pictures of feminine looking cacti fabrics to the customer for her opinion.  We selected a backing fabric that was light pink with cacti in aquas and pinks and grays.

     Who wants to lay their baby on top of cacti?   I remembered being in the Arizona desert and early one morning seeing a hot air balloon flying over the cacti.  This might be an idea I can go with.  So here is my original sketch that I shared with my customer.  She liked it.

My original sketch of an idea.

     Now to make it a reality.  I went to another fabric store with my backing fabric.  The backing fabric actually caused a problem for me.  The greens were more of an blue green.  Most regular greens I looked at for the cacti clashed with the colors in the backing fabric.  I eventually decided on a triangular print that I thought blended well and would give texture to the cacti.  Then mountain fabrics and sky fabrics were selected.  Desert browns and tans did not go with the backing fabric either.  Since gray is the new neutral, I found grays that would work well as desert floor and mountain - I look for fabrics that will give a shadow and texture effect.  

     Remembering the "rule of thirds"  I began to lay out the proportions for the quilt.

     I stitched the floor of the desert to the sky as a beginning point.  I wanted to match the shape of Picacho Peak for the mountain.  I had visited this area and knew the parents to be had climbed this peak several times.   If I did it just right, they should recognize it.

     I tried freehanding it and could not make it look just right.  Finally, I downloaded the picture to a word document, kept zooming in until the peak section filled the page and printed it.  Then I could trace it onto the fabric.

     The response from the customer when she finally saw the quilt was, "You nailed Picacho Peak."  Just the response I hoped for!

     I used Misty Fuse for the applique.  Shannon Brinkley is the one who turned me on to Misty Fuse.  It leaves the fabric with a natural, not stiffer feel.  I keep all my scraps with Misty Fused backing in a separate container to use on other applique projects.  I also learned from Shannon to use a stabilizer behind the applique when I zigzag the raw edges.  It prevents "tunneling" which if you have ever seen it will know exactly what I mean.  I used a tear away stabilizer behind the edges.

     On to the foreground.  Using some of the backing fabric, I ironed a lightweight interfacing and cut out some of the cacti.  I then raw edge stitched them to the foreground.  Googling suguaro silouettes  I printed outlines changing the sizes.  Using a technique I learned from Bee in My Bonnet's Lori Holt, I stitched around the outline of the suguaro to the same lightweight interfacing bumpy side to right side.  Then I cut a slash in the interfacing, turned it, evened out the edges and pressed it onto the foreground.  I used an applique stitch to attach that gives a hand turned look.

     I decided on 3 balloons in different sizes to give them a look of differing distances.  Each would have one of the baby's names, first, middle and last.  I cut out wrapping paper in order to try out the sizes and placement I wanted.

Wrapping paper to decided on sizes and placement of the hot air balloons.

     Now to the fun part.  Decorating the balloons.  Going through my bin of Misty Fused fabrics I selected fun and bright colors to make each balloon special.  While I had problems choosing fabrics to blend with my backing fabric for the desert, cacti and mountains, I had no compulsions about making the balloons coordinate as balloons flying over the desert are multicolored and beautiful.  To add more whimsy, color and fun, I added pennant banners flying from each balloon.

     When it came time to quilt the quilt, I added desert animal outlines in quilting which represent camouflaged animals.  There are snakes, lizards, foxes, horses, tortoises and other animals.  The sky was quilted with whimsical curls to add to the fun.

     The binding was a fun black and white polka dot.  

     The customer was quite pleased with how it turned and the new parents were excited and happy with the quilt honoring their new baby.

      

Baby Arizona enjoying her quilt.