Natural Hessian it is then

Meggie commented on my last post suggesting that maybe my brother and sister in law were joking about the choice of colour for the nursery.

Sadly the answer is no - they're serious. This is the couple I made the celtic knotwork cushions for Christmas. The whole house is decorated in nondescript putty colours. The wedding quilt I made them with pastel coloured background and cream knotwork is hidden away in a cupboard as it doesn't match the colour scheme (Blogger won't let me post a link to this but you can look back at it if you so choose in last May's old postings under 'My biggest quilt')

So here is the start of their baby quilt.

I've used a similar 'star in a star' to the cushion I made for us just before Christmas

They come out at 12" square so I shall do 6 of them (3 x 2) and then put 2" cream sashings with 'hessian' cornerstones which should appear to float. Then I'll complete it with a wider cream border. The abundance of cream will hopefully dilute the strange hessian colour. Then I can play with some more freehand feathers or something in the large cream areas as I quilt it. Finally a 'hessian' binding should finish it off.

I'm not a fan of two colour quilts of any colour combination and I could only find one fabric in my stash that seemed to fit the 'natural hessian' bill - even then I had to use the back of the fabric

I hope they like it because I can't say I'm keen - but it is their choice.

On a slightly related topic Nigel's cousin's wife gave birth to their second son yesterday at around 24 weeks gestation. Matthew John Bebbington weighed in at a miniscule 1lb 7ozs and was immediately rushed from the local hospital in Lancaster to the neo-natal ICU in Manchester a good hour's drive away. He's fighting for his tiny little life and who knows what the outcome will be. Because Cath's waters broke a week or two ago she has been given lots of steroids to hopefully give his tiny little lungs a fighting chance. We're all just holding our breath and waiting now to see what happens. Part of me wants to get a congratulations card and send it up to them to celebrate and acknowledge his arrival, the other part is reluctant to do so just in case he doesn't survive those first crucial few hours/days and the receipt of a card would just add to their sorrow.

He is of course in God's hands and I pray that he will survive and develop into a healthy little chap like his big brother Andrew. Only time will tell.