Son's Quilt showcased

The lead off image is the beginning of the backing for my Son's Quilt. If you are going to have ducks, you've got to include a bird dog! Zipper Von Zalez keeping watch over the area. 

It is my day to shine for the 2017 New Quilter's Blog Hop hosted by Yvonne @quiltingjetgirl, Leanne @she can quilt and Beth @Cooking Up Quilts. The others highlighted on this day include:
Sandy @Sandy Star Designs
Karen @Tu-Na Quilts, Travels, and Eats
Kathleen @Kathleen McMusing
Sarah @Designs by Sarah J

The balance of the hive participants are:

Amandy @Mommy’s Projects

Bobbi @Snowy Days Quilting

Fi @living cloth

Jennifer @Inquiring Quilter

Laura @Slice of Pi Quilts

Anita @Domestic Felicity ~

Cate @Chaos Theory Quilting

Liz @My Sew Called Life

Olusola @Alice Samuel’s Quilt Co.

Sandy @Sandy Star Designs

Danette @Nettie Sews

Debbie @Quilt Knowlogy

Olivia @Pumpkin Hollow Quilting

Raylee @Sunflower Stitcheries and Quilting

Let's get on with the show! A quick quilting intro about moi - my mother first taught me sewing and a home economics class in junior high school about did me in. Well, let's just say I tried to work with knits and found it to be frustrating.

Life proceeded along and when babies started to make their appearance, I made all of my own maternity clothes. I stuck with the basic stuff like keeping to cotton and putting in a zipper or two.

Fast forward 30 years (where does time go?), I had been hand sewing and mending when I decided, after stumbling on a Hawaiian shirt hoarder's estate sale, to begin quilting. I processed about 40 xxxxxxl shirts for the material. I have spent the last two years learning to chain piece, making mistakes, quilting and cursing (the order in which those things happen depend on the difficulty of the block in question). Here we are today, proudly representing in this New Quilters Blog Hop!

I have been bumping the creation of my son's quilt for other smaller projects and now it is time. His birthday is in July so it is a doable deadline. 

I found this template at myquiltinfatuation.com. I am sure there are other variations on this theme but I decided to follow this one. Her creation is pink/purple titled Sugar Plum Fairy. I have slowly but surely been branching out in my block creations.

Son's quilt top looking at it from the bottom right corner. Three ducks in a row on a cornerstone, one of my deliberate mistakes. You will also see in the block nearest in the picture, I ran out of the burgundy fabric, one of the perils of using thrifted remnants. Love the look of these blocks. Not sure if you call the top and bottom borders Big Piano Keys but that is how I think of them.

Do you think he will pick Border Fabric No. 1?

Border Fabric No. 2?

Or Border Fabric No. 3?

(The answer was actually revealed in my first image.  He chose No. 2 as the backing. )

I purchased a burgundy solid and am on the hunt for a forest green solid or print for the borders. This will be a queen bed sized quilt so it has some growing to go.

He does not want any florals so that made it more difficult. I wanted the plaid so all face the same direction and I made more than a few snafus, now orphan blocks. I also ended up dissecting the ducks in the center of the block but made up for it on the cornerstones.

A newly discovered item (to me) is heat bond - quilting tip for this hop. I like the look of applique and when I found these two ducks, I saved them for this project. The heat bond provided just enough stability to the fabric avoiding that puckered look.

Do you like quilting/sewing for the men in your life?

As an aside, May 1 to me means a celebration of flowers.
Happy May Day!