Miss AB's Just Growing quilt

When Miss AB's birthday began approaching, I knew I wanted to make her a quilt.  Something fun, with bright colors that alluded to her sparkling and energetic personality. 

JellyBean jumble

I had a plan in my head that I wanted to use Jellybean quilt pattern by Thimble Blossom.   Had my material all picked, blocks pieces cut and assembly started.  Then I realized I was doomed.  I had grabbed some white pieces from a previous quilt, Raine's X-rated quilt.  It really messed up the whole thing! Wonky to the seams and no matter how hard I worked, ripped, re-sewn, and adjusted, it just wasn't working out, so literally, I scrapped it. While it may look okay in the picture, the cute little white turned squares were not matching up, which threw off the rest of the points and seams. 

Cute dots on applique

Plan B:  New material, different pattern:  LeAnne Ballard's Just Growing from Moda Bakeshop.  I've had this in my "going to make this quilt someday" book (everyone has one right?) and loved the cute personalized flower applique.  It really seemed like the right choice for Miss AB!  Easy construction and layout, thought I made two major layout errors, Honey and Only said no one would know.  Well, now the whole world does!  I left off a white square on the second row and I completely flipped the last two rows. I can't follow directions worth a hoot!  I decided to only add one strip of fabric instead of two, like LeAnne directed, mainly because I wanted it to fit the quilt batting I already had in my stash. 

personalized flower

Cutting out the applique letters and flowers took some time and some thinking power, but Oldest took that evening to introduce me to Duck Dynasty... life will never be the same (can you see me rolling my eyes). Honey said the flowers needed a little something, so I added some "star" dots to the center of the flowers and voila! 

Personalization on the back

Using soft baby brown corduroy for the backing, I appliqued her name in Polaroid type frames, making sure they were purposely wonky, then added another flower underneath, using a blanket stitch for all the applique.  Because my machine was acting up, I decided to get out my walking foot and quilt straight lines, connecting the corners, leaving the strip of fabric across the stop un-quilted for an added focus on her hand prints (brought together to form a heart).  I wish I had a picture of that, but I don't at this time. This is the first time I "went beyond the border) and did not add a border and I must confess I liked the idea!  I'll have to do this one again as it was such an easy and fun quilt to do! 

The front before quilting

Ready to be snuggled with

The doomed quilt pieces?  I'll have to save their final purpose for another day.  I'm so glad you stopped by today!  Have you ever started a project and had to "scrap" it because it was a total fail?  I'd love to hear how you "saved" the day!