I've been asked to make a baby quilt that doesn't use juvenile fabrics. The new mom requested
a quilt that is green and royal blue with a few yellow accents. She also asked for foliage, waves, and Hawaiian fabric! And she wants the quilt to be "quiet." Whew! That's a challenge.

For the past couple years I have been thinking about Elizabeth Hartman's quilt "Batch of Brownies" in her book, The Practical Guide to Patchwork. It's a "stack, cut and shuffle" strip quilt with rectangular blocks. What fascinates me about this quilt is the deer peeking out of some of the squares in the quilt's green blocks. I'm interested in all sorts of "I Spy" quilts and her quilt has an I Spy element. Children really enjoy looking for hidden things in pictures (and quilts). The quilt I am making isn't going to be a typical baby quilt but I am planning to hide a few animals and other things in blocks.

Learning to use Electric Quilt 7 to design original blocks and quilts is on my To-Do list for this year. So today I sat down and watched EQ's helpful video about using Patch Draw to design blocks. Then I got to work. I had to refer to the Help files for several topics but for the first time, I managed to design a block and quilt completely on the computer without resorting to pencil and paper!

Here is the pattern I created. I had sky, forest and ocean in mind when I designed it. The bright or dark color patches in the blocks are markers for the things I want to hide in the quilt. The yellow sunlight in the sky filters through the forest and sparkles on the surf in the ocean.

The colors from the EQ file shown here are much more vivid than the fabrics I have picked for the quilt. But it does give a idea about how the completed quilt will look like. I am using a soft green foliage fabric for the sashing to quiet the activity in the blocks.

Sky Fabrics

Forest Fabrics--the green on the right will be the sashing

Ocean Fabrics

Hawaiian Fabric for the Backing

I can't wait start sewing the blocks and to see how this quilt comes together. I'll keep you posted on my progress!