The making of a project: fabric considerations

(post 1 of 3 or 4)

When I posted the Fabric Baby Blocks that I made for a co-worker's baby, longtime reader Amy, of The Calico Cat, emailed me to ask if I'd make her son a set.
I figured...sure.

I knew that my co-worker's baby's room was paisley, in green and pink, and I knew she loved Amy Butler fabrics, so the blocks came together easily.
Amy didn't really have a theme in mind, only that her son's room is gender neutral, mostly in green and yellow.
She said just make whatever I wanted (I was really surprised she didn't specify cats).
Hmmmm....

Normally one would think that kind of freedom would be comfortable, but it's pretty typical for me to stress out regardless.
Too, Amy is a quilter--that means she knows fabric and quality, which added more stress into the mix.

Option one that I considered was to again use Amy Butler fabrics, even part of my stash, but to concentrate on the green and yellow patterns

or I considered adding some Tula Pink

or the cool three-dimensional prints by Tina Givens



I ended up abandoning that idea because flowers seemed too girly.
Granted, I knew Amy didn't want trucks, but swirly seemed too far in the opposite direction.

So I thought, maybe Japanese imports.
Can't really go wrong with Japanese imports.
Some of these fabrics are linen--would that be too scratchy?
I decided against a set of fleece blocks, and couldn't resist the imports.

Drool worthy wins out over practical every time!

I started buying a few Fairytale-themed prints from Super Buzzy (they have awesome pirates and robots, but that was too boyish...going for gender neutral for this project)
loooove this Wonderland Tea Party


Little Red Riding Hood


I got this Bambi and Three Little Pigs in brown from Saucy Louise


other fabrics are still on my "gimme" list, like this Kokka Red Riding Hood

Ooh, just found this seersucker pigs


Amy didn't sound completely sold on the fairytale idea, so I switched over to birds instead (ironically, the Tula fabric above is a nest).

But um, I kind-of got carried away.
I ordered 18 fabrics off ebay and etsy, and three birdie ribbons too.
And that's not even buying birdcage, or egg, or nest-themed fabrics!
Eek.
That's too many, even if I make the blocks spell out Henry Jacob rather than just Jacob.
Again, typical Barb...

So I edited a bit.
I'm still sewing on the blocks and will show the finished goodness in a future post
(this post is long enough now as it is).

Yay, school is out for the summer, so I should be posting more on a regular basis again.