A Dress and the Skeleton Quilt Top

My sweet daughter turned 5 years old last week.  I made her a dress in time for preschool picture day and her birthday.  As a family, we all went to Denver and enjoyed a visit to the Children's Museum.  As I continue to struggle with homesickness for New England, I find that taking advantage of visiting such unique places helps- we even decided to buy a membership.  

I returned to the Me Hearties dress pattern and chose a Lizzy House knit (from the clearance section at Hawthorne Threads):

Here's some "action" shots of gift opening:

Like an idiot, I deleted all of my pictures of some baby gifts I recently completed for a friend.  Here's a screen shot of their documentation on IG: size 6 month baby boy Quick Change Trousers:

Last week, I immediately dove into making Gregory's skeleton quilt.  Having completed the skull blocks at the retreat, this top came together came together rapidly.  I put it together in a bit of an "improvisational" way: I told myself I would aim for the size of 78" x 90" and I was eager to use up as much of the glow in the dark fabrics as possible (because I don't see myself making another similar quilt anytime soon and those fabrics wouldn't play well in other projects).

Here's how it came out:

Although you can't see his face in these pictures, Gregory is very happy with this quilt.  We got the skeleton costume for a $1 at a yard sale the day after I finished this top: perfect timing!  I have already scheduled time to rent a longarm to quilt this top on Monday, March 13 (yes giving that business another try since it's my only local option!).

I have to admit that I am a little self conscious about this quilt because it is kind of creepy.  I don't want people to think I am obsessed with creepy stuff or even that Gregory is either!  I had originally wanted to make the sugar skull pieced blocks with several bright solid fat quarters from my stash and just a plain black background AND put that darn skeleton panel on the back of the quilt.  But I know Gregory wouldn't have been thrilled with that idea and was very insistent on using that panel on the front.  It's so difficult to use panels!  This is why I was quite thrilled with the outcome of the Harry Potter quilt.

I do think Gregory will enjoy using this quilt all year round and he's been bugging me to make him it for quite a while.  It's so much easier (and often more enjoyable) to sew for Charlotte but I don't want him to feel left out.

I'll be back soon with a post showcasing the completed quilt!  Thanks for reading.