My Belle Marcelle

If you follow me on Instagram, you know that my Marcelle Medallion quilt top has been in the works for sometime now, and that I am in love with it. This is the first quilt I have made that is going to be all mine! No sharing for this mama.... Well let's be honest, I'll probably share.
I started it last September during the MMQAL over at Penny Poppleton. I did pretty well keeping up the pace with the quilt along, but then I fell behind and hit a wall (aka the flying geese). From that point on, I only worked on it here and there, and didn't really push to get it finished.

Finally after the new year, I ordered all the fabric I needed to finish it up (thanks mom) and got back to work. It is by no means perfect... my geese are too big, several of my seams aren't quite square, and I am pretty sure it ended up a couple inches bigger than what the pattern states. But hey I don't care, it's a labor of love and I love it.... hey did I mention I love this quilt.

For most the blues in my quilt, I used my horded  I mean stashed collection of Constellations by Lizzy House. It is a fantastic line, and I am so glad I discovered it while I could still get a complete bundle of it. I still have a full FQ bundle waiting for another project. I also used some Tula Pink fabrics from my stash and other various blues that I felt worked overall. Oh and of course tons of Pearl Bracelets, plus all the backgrounds are various low volume prints from my stash. 

These blue jewels (also Lizzy House) that I used for the outer border were exactly what I was wanting. I love the way that the darkness of it closes off the quilt and says yep it's done. I've seen soo many Marcelle Medallions that go on and on with extra borders, and they are gorgeous, but I like that mine has a definite end. I feel like any other color would have left me thinking there is something missing.

I wanted it to be scrappy but not un-cohesively scrappy. Some scrap quilts leave me a little lost, and a bit over stimulated, so I like that the monochromatic nature of this lets it be scrappy without being overwhelming. In making this quilt I've discovered that blue is definitely my safety color, and that I love saturated colors over pastels and soft hues.

Finishing this quilt top was my goal for the January A Lovely Year of Finishes, and I am so glad that I was able to accomplish it. Now the challenging part for me... quilting it! I have a couple ideas, and I am looking forward to trying them out.

Oh and I just had to share these adorable pictures of my little William that I took while taking quilt pictures :) He loves having his picture taken and it makes me smile everytime!

 He's looking more and more like his daddy every day! 

I love this sweater my Grammo got him for Christmas. Who is this little boy, and what happened to my baby!

Love him :) He's going to be the one that fights for my Marcelle Medallion. Tonight he wouldn't go to bed with any of his other blankets because he only wanted a quilt I had made him (his was in the laundry from an accident last night). Thankfully I had his baby quilt I made him when he was a newborn, and he happily took it even though it is too small for him now.