While I have pieced the quilt top to my TEN YEARS OLD Single Girl Quilt, I still haven’t gotten around to, oh… quilting it. Yet, that didn’t stop me from making a lap size “Fancy Fox II” quilt for our friends, The Foxes. Yes, folks. That’s right. Given an opportunity to work in puns and gimmicks, I will almost always take it.

My husband Jordan went to law school with Mr. Fox, so when he and his wife were expecting, I thought a little quilt would be a nice gift. I am usually terrified and loathe to make someone anything. For a baby, I figure there are dozens of things the parents need, and a quilt isn’t going to be at the top of the list. I also get super awkward giving a handmade gift, because I don’t want to make a big deal about it, but you and I both know that handmaking anything takes time and effort.  I am also personally awkward when given a gift, so maybe I’m just projected. Yet, I’m glad I ignored my innermost negative thoughts and made this sweet quilt.

Since I know nothing about current quilt fabric lines and really, not that much about quilting, I turned to my quilter friend Mary for help. She chose all the fabrics for me. And let me tell you just how good she is. I said the couple met in New York and she picked the Gramcery collection from Arthouse fabrics. Each of the materials reflects a bit of New York from Central Park, a map of Manhattan, brownstone, the Brooklyn Bridge and even street lights. The colors mimic their preferred registry colors too. They live in Florida now near my dad, so we were able to gift it in person this past week while visiting.

The quilt is four enormous foxes for the lap size quilt. You can also make smaller foxes for crib and toddler size. I chose lap size, because Mary told me crib size was almost useless and I figured at lap size, their new little girl could take this quilt from nursery school to summer camp and maybe even on to college.

I did all the straight line quilting myself on my Bernina and promise to never do that again. Honestly, it is worth it for me to pay a long arm quilter and get a more intricate quilt design than I am capable or want to do myself.  While I LOVE the end result of quilting, I’m not in love with a lot of the quilt-making process. It was a pleasure to make something for someone and have them like it back. And might motivate me to finish the two quilts I’m in the middle of.

Oh, and if you’re an occasional quilter like me, I found the Singer Sewing Reference Library book, “Quilting By Machine” invaluable.