giraffe "gatsby" quilt for baby charley

this is jessica.  jessica and i (along with elyse) grew up together down the road from each other.  alas, we have all gone separate ways (and states... literally) but still keep in touch thanks to the magical land of facebook.  this past summer cica moved off to new york, but not without announcing that she & hubby bryan were expecting their first baby together.  finding out it was a girl was so much fun... and i had a legit reason to go shopping.  i saw this fabric in stores before, but had no reason to use it.  until now.  cica is one of my fellow "tall friends" and these little giraffes were oh so cute and adorable. even more perfect, it wasn't overly pink, which didn't seem very cica to me. she was always a "blue" kind of girl. so this teal was just perfection.
it took me FOREVER to find a quilt pattern i really liked that wouldn't take away from the giraffe print. my grandma gave me a bunch of quilt magazines, and after flipping through them (and pinning 1000 things on pinterest) i found this "gatsby" quilt in the spring 2008 issue of easy quilts. and yes, easy was exactly what it was!
the squares just added in those pops of color to accent the little giraffes and keep the design simple and fun.  i like that the pink is in there as well, just to pop in that extra girly-ness without being too overwhelming.
yep. i still like you a lot, little giraffes. i'm gad i ended up with extra scraps of you for sure. and you'll have a place in my scrappy square quilt. that is a perpetual work in progress... hah.
i did the quilting myself on this one, since my grandma had just had hip surgery. it was quite the experience, but still a better attempt than what i had tried to do myself in the pasrt. still need more practice before going on to bigger, more monstrous quilts. oy. the thought is scary!
token binding photo. and cat fur. because anything that comes from my house gets a little bit of cat fur with it.
look at that quilting! boo yah! okay, it's a little exciting that it didn't turn out horrid. i did a "stitch in the ditch" method... but didn't stay in the ditch the whole time. oops. that will need practice... but it's still better than others and finally, remembering to use more of my little tags. i've gotten better at remembering those too.  i've got a bunch of projects coming up that may require them, so i'll have to locate the rest of them.
it's been so much fun seeing cica become a mommy, and i'm so bummed she is so far away.  but you know what that means?  potential field trip of summer 2014!  it's been bouncing in my head quite a bit, and i'm not sure if i'll fly or if i'll drive like i randomly thought to the other day, but i'm itching to get out there and see more of the country besides three western states.  and if it means seeing this fantastic new family of three as well, by all means... yes please!  i'm sure there will be more on planning that once the new year hits, so stay tuned :)
quilt pattern: "gatsby" from easy quilts spring 2008