The Epic 1001 Peeps Quilt.

This quilt is going to be epic, not because the design is crazy wild (like Tula Pink's Fandango quilt pattern--coming soon and OMG, I can't wait) or because it's a massive undertaking like a California King or involves complicated FMQ or handquilting or anything super wild. It will be none of those things.

This quilt is for my middle son, using fabric (1001 Peeps!) I bought four years ago just for him when he was a baby for this very moment in time. He's helping me pick fabrics and encouraging me (sometimes rather impatiently) to get work done. Mr. Lito has been bunking with his big brother for a couple of years, and he's about to move into his own big boy bed, meaning he needs his own big boy quilt. (My husband is in the process of building bunk beds--can we talk about how intense that is???) So, it will be sentimentally epic? Yeah, We'll go with that.

Rachel from Stitched in Color posted last week about 30 Day of Quilt Design, an idea where you instagram post quilt designs you've sketched out. And my first thought was, oh, I don't do that. Like, at all. It's not my thing. I see these QDAD posts, and they are super cool, but they are what other people do, not me. Moving on.

And then I started thinking, why isn't it my thing? Why don't I sketch out quilts, even if I will never ever (and might not even have the intention of) making them? What would happen if I tried? Thirty not-necessarily-consecutive days of sketching quilt ideas. Could I even do that?

The answer, friends, is I just don't know. It feels weird for me to confront graph paper without a specific need. I base my quilt ideas on what I'm feeling, what is currently interesting me, and what I think the recipient might like. If I throw out the recipient...well...I don't know. It feels weird. So, I may not get very far, but I'm hoping to stretch myself, if only a little.

The above picture is what I've sketched out for my son's quilt. It's not complicated, but I spent quite a bit of time thinking about sashing widths, total number of blocks, what would best fit his mattress, fabric requirements, what fabric I already have, etc., because that is how I design a quilt. The sketch was actually the last bit, and I'm still mulling over whether I'd like to add a narrower inner border--I'm leaning toward yes--but I think that will wait until I've pieced all of the blocks and sashed them, then laid them on the mattress to see what I think the quilt still needs. 

This is the start of my foray into 30 Days of Quilt Design. I'm going to be brave and do something that makes me feel uncomfortable. Eep!