Sew, What's Cookin'?: Hippy Blanket

At first I thought I misspelled hippy... but a little research by my husband assured me that I did not. In the process, we learned that there is a difference in the people that are a hippy or hippie. My friend Renee is a hippy. She had a milestone birthday recently, with a rockin' party to celebrate it, and I couldn't think of anything better to give her than a homemade lap blanket. She is warm, kind, giving, funny, and does so much for the people that touch her life in one way or another. So, one more time - Happy Birthday my friend!

By the time I figured out what I'd be doing as her birthday gift, I had 3 weeks to get fabric picked out and the quilt made. In that time, our cat got sick and ultimately went to heaven so I ended up taking a week off from any sewing. In my haste to get the blanket finished for the party, I forgot to take measurements, but it's approximately 40" x 50". There are 9 geese across the top/bottom and 12 geese on both sides. It has a hot pink flannel backing. To attach the three layers (top, batting, backing) in the large center area, I used felt flower buttons... so fun.

Fabric choices... oh this was hard. Renee likes the peace sign, vibrant colors, tie-dye, etc. The large inner rectangle was my focus fabric and I spent 2 days at 3 different fabric stores finding coordinating items. I had something like 5 or 6 fabrics picked out, all of them had a pattern. It was really bothering me, it was too busy and just didn't work. One final evening, on my way out to dinner with my husband, I stopped into a quilt shop called The Needle and I in Everett. I needed at least one solid color to pull this all together. The gals in that shop were great, and they had exactly what I needed. We talked some fabric strategy and I left with a better plan than I went in with. Finally, I could get started feeling good about my choices.

For the finished product, I packed it into a large plastic bag and made a 'label' out of card stock so it would look a little like something bought in a store. We looked up 60's lingo to try and make it look like it came from that time. I downloaded some hippy fonts and we were set! The 'advertising' I put on the label said: