Blue Offset Diamond Baby Quilt

I just received a commission order from a friend for her new niece and nephew ... twins!

We spent a little time with my Kona color chart and she came up with the following palette ... the blues on the left are for the little boy and the lavenders on the right for the her niece ... she wants to have a pop of Sprout green in each.

I am still thinking through design plans for hers ... but have started on his.  I sketched out the what I want for his.  Wider strips of blues with narrower strips of white in an offset diamond pattern comprised of HSTs.

It's a variation on the a baby quilt I made several years ago for a friend. 

Today I got all 252 squares up on the design wall.

I used different white neutrals in the rows of white instead of a solid color.  I did this on my Rainbow of Color quilt earlier this year and felt it really calmed the pattern down.  I loved how it softened the rows.  I didn't understand why I liked it ... but then someone explained that it was because it added texture ... which it definitely did.

Hope to get it pulled together this weekend and finish designing the second quilt.

Whilst I've been busy with holiday presents and these commissions, John was equally busy in the house with his latest Ikea hack from Billy bookcases.  We learned our lesson last year on our first  book case hack (see our do's and don'ts here) and he used primer on all the surfaces before paining it to match our woodwork and a contrast color on the back panel.  It came out pretty good ... a custom look at a fraction of the price.

Hope everyone has had a great week out there ...

All the best,
Lisa