What's in a name?

What's in a name? Well, in my case, lemon, azure, hyacinth, and light background. In case you are feeling a bit confused, I will back up a bit and relate a little more of the story.

Back in January, I was visiting one of my favorite local quilt shops, K & H Quilt Shoppe in Kaysville. On this visit, I learned of a quilt "challenge" they were issuing. Although I've heard of quilt challenges, I hadn't yet participated in one. This one intrigued me, and I decided to sign up.

For those of you who may not know what a quilt challenge is, here is my attempt at an explanation. A quilt challenge is issued to invite interested quilters to create a quilt, or perhaps just a quilt block around a given feature. Most often, I have seen quilt challenges involve a given piece of fabric. Those who elect to participate in the challenge, receive the piece of fabric and must incorporate it into their quilt. Sometimes the challenge also involves a theme so the quilter must design a quilt that incorporates the fabric and, in some way, relates to the theme.

So now, back to my challenge. The theme of this challenge was "What's in a Name?" Those participating were directed to construct their quilt using colors that started with the initials in their name. We were allowed to use middle and maiden names so that gave us some added variety. We were told that we could design our own quilt, use a kit, base it from a pattern, really whatever - it just needed to be at least 30 inches square and needed to just include the colors corresponding to our initials. We also were allowed to use a background fabric.

For my initials of L A H L, I let my husband pick out the colors. He selected lemon, azure, and hyacinth. I decided that the last "L" could stand for light background.

Next, I had to decide what my quilt would look like. I pondered through some patterns and magazines, but nothing really seemed to fit. After a while, I realized that I had some Civil War-themed block pattern books that I have been eager to use. I also had Civil War-themed fabric in my selected colors so I was off to work.

The next looming challenge was which blocks to select. With limited time, I couldn't use all of them. I also wanted a smaller wall quilt so I chose to use 6-inch blocks. The book I used, however, gave directions for 8-inch and 12-inch blocks. So, I took on the challenge of sizing down the pieces. Keep in mind that sizing down pieces for a 6-inch block isn't just a matter of using half the dimensions of the pieces for the 12-inch block. You also have to keep in mind the seam allowances. If a given set of patches is cut more than once, in the case of quarter-square triangles, you will need to account for that as well. (I can explain more in another post.)

Here is a picture of all of my completed blocks on the design wall before I added the sashing strips. I was very happy with how they turned out. I also had fun using different shades of my selected colors.

Here are a few closeups of some of the blocks with the machine quilting in place. 

I think this one is my favorite.like the way the fussy-cut lemon-colored rose is centered in the block.

Here's the back of the quilt so that you can see the edge-to-edge quilting motif.

Finally, here is a close up of my label. I'm not the most artistic at creating my labels, and I have a hard time getting my letters of uniform size and darkness.

As I've thought about "What's in a name?" I've also pondered what God's Word has to say about names. One particular Sunday School memory verse comes to mind, and I will simply close out this post by sharing it with you. 

A good name is to be more desired than great wealth, 

favor is better than silver or gold. Proverbs 22:1