Laptop Quilt for Mom

My mom loves all things excessively pink...excessively! I've never been much of a pink fan, but it's nice every once in a while to have a chance to play with pink fabrics, knowing I can always make something for my mom, or my girls, or my sis's girls, and know they will enjoy these colors.

For Christmas I had another gift idea in mind for my mom at first when I bought these two fabrics.

But after deciding against making that project (which I'll keep to myself, since it might be a better gift idea next year) I wasn't sure what to make with these fabrics?

My mom isn't a purse carrying kind of woman...at all, so making a really cute all purpose tote for her like I did for my sis wouldn't have been a good idea. So I hit up my younger sis for better gift ideas and she said mom loves blankets, so I decided to make her a lap quilt.

Of course by this time nearing Christmas I didn't want to spend any more money on more fabrics, so I raided my leftovers stash and found 2 other coordinating colors of pink and white to add some more variety to this project.

Ignore the black smudges, there must've been something on my camera lens that day. The light pink with snowflakes comes from some leftover fabric I used in the twin size rag quilt I've been working on for LA (it's all together, but awaiting the incredibly LONG ragging process before it will be finished).

The white is leftover from a rag quilt EJ has been SLOWLY making for herself. I think it's so great that I can find ways to reuse the same fabrics for special gifts for several family members to share in common.

I had no idea what style or pattern I was going to end up making at first, but that day I was in the mood to sew rectangles for a change (I had been sewing a ton of squares for my niece's baby quilt) and started to make several long strips until it looked about the right lap size length.

Then I decided to sew really long rectangles of the darkest pink fabric in between these strips and really liked the contrast and how these colors came together.

Still didn't know how to add trim correctly, so I did my best and really had to be "creative" on each corner when my light pink strips ended up a few inches too short,...grrr.

In the end it turned out okay in my mind, I still didn't know how to properly baste a quilt yet either, so I was really irritated at how perfectly straight all my lines were throughout the quilt top and then how badly I screwed them up during the basting/quilting process. I know, I'm still learning.

As always, the back side of the quilt is far less forgiving when it comes to hiding all of my mistakes. I initially wanted to find a light pink flannel, but the store was out, so this medium pink was all they had and I went with it. I really liked that decision and think this darker color looks better.

Tada! Another soft lap quilt under my belt (not to mention, a finished product in general). Mom was VERY happy with it, she loved all the colors, softness, etc.

And somehow when the person you make it for loves your gifts that much, all those really irritating sewing mistakes end up going away, leaving you feeling much better about that project.