A labor of love.

Payton's Mom picked out some fabrics while Payton was still cooking in her Mom's tummy for a quilt that would wrap the wee one up when the air was chilly.

Payton was born. Has grown to about 18 months old and I just finished her quilt. I did size it up so she could snuggle with it while watching movies and it's large enough to spaciously grace her toddler bed.

Sometimes projects get back burnered. For no other reason except - I get distracted with other projects. So, on Saturday night when the Gardener, my hubby, got a phone call from a friend to help him track a deer he shot...that left me with 3 kids asleep in bed and a quiet house all to myself. And down to my sewing room I went.

3 1/2 hours later, a sweet little quilt...actually, I guess it's a really a patchwork blanket because it's not quilted at all. My husband came home from his adventures just in time to actually lay out the squares in an order that he said "was mathematically correct". *shakes head* He laid them out so that no color was repeated in any row in any direction. Ok, so it works. It was pretty.

I backed the blanket with some flannels, used a sheet in the center to give it some weight (instead of batting). For a blanket like this, I pieced the top using 16 quantity 9 1/2" squares and 2 1/2" wide sashing. Then I basted the center sheet to the top. Put right sides together - the back to the top (my blanket sandwich in order was: center sheet, top, back), stitched leaving an opening for turning. Turned it right side out, steam pressed the edges, pinned again and then top stitched all the way around.

Pretty quick and simple and a labor of love for our sweet friend Payton.