Hormones affect women differently in their late stages of pregnancy. Some obsessively clean, others rearrange the nursery several times, and I felt the need to make multiple baby quilts for my little one.

Does a baby need three quilts? Um – nope. But that didn’t matter.

And as time is flying by, I thought I’d take a second to document them here. I had already cut triangles for the quilt above years ago and had set the pieces aside. After Orson was born, I noticed the bag of cut fabric sitting on the shelf and realized if I didn’t do something with the pieces at that moment, the bag would continue to collect dust for years to come.

I had originally planned for the quilt to be alternating between 4 colors – the maroon, hot pink, a light mauve and cream. When the recipient of the quilt changed to a little boy, I ditched the mauve and cream and threw in some scraps to add some interesting pops of color. Hot pink is a nontraditional color to include in a boy’s quilt, but pairing it with the orange and maroon feels really modern and gender neutral.

Triangle quilts. In theory this seemed like such an easy pattern to knock out, but even though I was careful in cutting, those blocks didn’t line up. Not even close in some places – oh, well. For the most part, I was half watching a Girls marathon while the baby was snoozing in his bouncer, so needless to say, my concentration was compromised.

But in the end, the quilt ended up perfectly matching a lion pillow I had made for him a month earlier and a pillow which rests in his nursery rocking chair. The binding and quilt back are a bright chartreuse.

The swiss cross quilt was a test in patience and another project I had abandoned earlier only to reinvigorate it a month before Orson was born. I had started cutting strips for this in early 2012 but set it aside for one reason or another (probably boredom honestly).

I had been eyeing the sweetest wishbone fabric in the store for months but couldn’t imagine a project that would give me reason for its purchase. Using it as the quilt’s backing was ideal, as it serves of a reminder of the countless wishes and dreams in our little boy’s future.

Baby quilts are a funny thing because you’re not supposed to place any blankets or loose articles in the crib due to risk of SIDS. I had every intention of hanging it over his crib as a decorative piece, but was overcome with paranoid thoughts of the quilt falling off the wall in the middle of the night and smothering my baby as he slept. Those hormones are real, I tell ya.

And lastly, a quilt documenting a time in our life and the city we called home for the past 15 years. It’s not like we moved to another state (we’re 15 minutes away), but it became a project I started obsessing over and had to follow through on to see its results.

The city design is one of my illustrations and I’m attracted to the idea of taking a flat image and reimagining it in a different form. One you can bend and hold – one you can wrap yourself up in at night.

I used an online service to digitally print the fabric and they shall remain nameless as I’m less than thrilled with the results after washing the fabric just once. Significant fading.

Fabric aside, the thought was to stitch around the borders of each element, creating a line drawing out of thread on the backside of the quilt.

The result is what I had in mind, but I cursed my way through it.

I won’t be starting another quilt for quite some time and it felt so good to wrap up unfinished projects, even if they ended up being considerably smaller than the original plan. And best of all, the recipient of said quilts seems to be enjoying them.