Sealed With a Kiss: A finished top

This week has not been a good weather week for my area. Between the tornadoes that have been hitting the past two nights (it's expected that tonight's thunderstorm will have good conditions for more) and the rain that all of the thunderstorms have been dumping it's been a bit scary. Thankfully my home is safe, but I work in Rock Valley, IA which has been battling flood waters the past two days. Someone flew over the town with a helicopter and put the pictures on facebook. It's a bit surreal to see the street you drove down Monday filled with water and watch the flood waters creeping towards your workplace from two sides. They say the water is going down and we should be allowed back in tomorrow. My arthritis prevents me from assisting with sandbagging and clean-up efforts, so I've had two days for sewing. Yesterday I finished 3 more Farmer's Wife blocks (they were so great at getting my mind off the water) and today I finished my Sealed With a Kiss quilt top. 

A few weeks ago I went to order the grey background fabric I needed for my Supernova blocks (still no sign of my partner's blocks so I'm not sharing those yet.) Missouri Star Quilt Co. had a sale of 30 precuts for 30 dollars. I really wanted to make Jenny Doan's You've Got Mail quilt and when I saw the Briar Rose layer cake I knew I'd found my fabric. My quilt guild makes comfort quilts for the local women's shelter and for our DA to give to victims of violent crimes. I haven't heard anything yet, but this quilt might also be headed to someone affected by this week's weather. 

When I started this project I decided to make a twin sized quilt for a little girl at the shelter so I knew I didn't want a white background. I thought about grey, but I know the building they're in isn't the most cheerful. Our women's shelter is a 2 year program that helps women and their children get back on their feet so I wanted a quilt that would be a vibrant sign that life was going to get better. When I saw this pink solid at my LQS I decided to embrace the girliness of this quilt. 

Last Friday my guild had a work day and I got most of the top assembled. I was thinking about making borders with something green or maybe a grey polka dot to tone down the pink a little. Instead I found a darker pink with green and light pink polka dots. I'm really not sure how I ended up with a quilt that is so PINK!!! Even as a little girl I don't remember liking pink this much (I think a lot of that is that my sister loved pink and I wanted to be different so I liked purple. Now my favorite colors are blue and green as will be shown when I finally get to share my Supernova blocks.) I keep telling myself that there will be a little girl who loves this quilt, but I haven't convinced myself of this yet. 

I used half the layer cake with plans of making a coordinating quilt with similar fabrics but a different pattern for a sister or mom. I'm trying to decide if I want to keep the pink background for the second quilt (I have about a yard left) or if I should do something less pink.

*This picture shows the importance of being patient when photographing quilts. I spent about 15-20 minutes with my finger on the shutter button and took 35 pictures before I got this shot. I like the "action" shots of the quilt, but it took a lot of waiting for the wind to die down long enough to get this picture.