I was recently asked to make a quilt for a new baby girl. She was born on the winter solstice and named after her parents’ favorite peak in the Sierra Nevadas. There was a lot of going back and forth on the colors and layout for the quilt, but we finally found a good balance to suit this sweet babe.

Mom’s favorite color is royal blue, so that was our starting point, and we added in navy, aqua, dark and minty green, mustard, and pinks. For the backing, and also some squares on the front, we used Rifle Paper Co’s celestial lawn which is a beautiful ultra-light blush pink (nearly white) with gorgeous metallic gold. I think it’s an unexpected and beautiful combination of colors.

For the layout I wanted to pay tribute to the mountain theme. I had come across a quilt that Cotton and Steel posted, and the layout of squares (set on point, and by color family) made me think of mountains. So I did some simple math and began the quilt. It came together if a flash, and then I spent a large bulk of time hand quilting it.

Again, I wanted to nod to the mountain theme, so I abandoned my typical crosshatch grid quilting, and opted to adorn the mountain-looking blocks with my own mountains. All the blocks feature peaks at varying heights, and the light pink blocks have some off set peaks like one would naturally see while looking at a mountain range.

I did spend a good deal longer on this quilt than I normally would have, but I found the project so inspiring and enjoyed every second of quilting with the Smokies right outside my own window. We moved here, in large part, for mountains and in my own way, working on this quilt was a tribute to that and the new life we are fully enjoying. Perhaps that sounds selfish, but I mean that I felt I could relate to that love which inspired the name of the baby.

We took the quilt out to Cades Cove because a mountain inspired quilt clearly needs to be photographed in the mountains. I do hope the parents will love this quilt. I had the best time working with my client to achieve her vision for this special gift. I love nearly all the projects I am commissioned to make, but there’s just something extra special about making a gift for a brand new life, and this one comes with a beautiful story.

Tomorrow I’ll be sharing another special project I’ll be taking on. I hope you’ll pop in!

-Meredith