Mama Quilt #4: Holly Bedient

Note: I'm actually quite behind on my mama quilt posts, but better late than never, eh?

Mrs. Holly Bedient was the inspiration and recipient of my fourth mama quilt project. I was particularly excited to tackle Holly's quilt because she is so gregarious and bold I knew I had a real opportunity to be creative in my attempt to express her personality visually.

Generally speaking, Holly is pretty clear about what she does and doesn't like. She's a passionate and expressive person. (If you don't believe me, just ask her how she feels about Best Buy...) So for my purposes, this simplified things considerably. Hands down her favorite color is green and pairing it with brown was simply a no-brainer. That was an easy place to start. Then, as I sat and brainstormed about how I wanted to express the essence Holly, I thought about how I admired her gumption. She is simply not intimidated to try something new, to tackle a project (especially if it involves manly tools) or to wield some competitive challenge. I love that! She inspires me to try new things and to be unconcerned with failure. Just go for it!

Therefore, I felt like I had permission to break the rules and try something new. This translated into the pattern for the quilt. Originally I had chosen a diagonal stripe pattern, but as I was laying out the blocks, it felt all wrong to me. It wasn't brave; it was too orderly and safe. I nearly chucked the whole thing, but instead I rearranged the pieces until I had come up with a completely new design. I was quite satisfied (tickled even!) with the final product as it extended beyond the normal boundaries of the pattern and extended into the quilts boarder. Talk about a rule breaker!

My last comment speaks to the feeling of the quilt. I chose the fabrics for the quilt based simply on if they felt Holly enough to me. This exasperated my mother to no end. I walked up and down the aisles and aisles of fabric trying to hone in on what "felt Holly" to me. I initially found a couple right off the bat, but as my mom tried to help me find companion fabrics, I continuously rejected them saying, "Yeah...I guess that goes with the others, but it just doesn't feel right to me." My poor mom. But she hung in there with me and eventually I found what I was looking for and that satisfied my Holly vibe. The only trouble was, most of them were centerpiece fabrics - something you could build a whole quilt around. When you put them all together...it was a little chaotic. This troubled me at first, but I decided it simply couldn't be helped. These fabrics were all Holly and I was just going to have to find a way to get them all to compromise.

In the end, I think the design I came up with does a perfect job of bringing all the Holly-ness into an accurate picture of Holly. It's bright, it's bold, and yes, it's a little chaotic. But the chaos is reigned in and contained into something absolutely beautiful. And to me, that perfectly describes Holly: controlled chaos. I don't think you could successfully pull together this quilt with another combination of fabrics; it's one of a kind, just like my girl. ;)

So for your exclusive viewing pleasure, I give you Controlled Chaos, as inspired by Holly Bedient.


P.S. - In case you're wondering, Holly successfully delivered an adorable baby boy, William (Will) Bedient. Seriously, so cute. He's even got dimples. Way to go Mrs. B!