The aerial grove design is by Carolyn Friedlander, undoubtedly my favorite quilt designer.  I’d had my eye on doing a version of this quilt ever since I got a copy of her book, Savor Each Stitch (not surprisingly, my favorite quilting book.)  Finally, I decided to give it a go.

The primary motif in the quilt is a series of columns of appliqued circles of different fabrics.  I did fewer circles than she’d recommended for a full-size quilt, since I was planning a baby quilt, though I wasn’t originally sure of the recipient.

Fabric

For the appliqued circles, I used essentially every piece of blue fabric I owned.  For the rest of the quilt, I used predominantly neutral fabrics, with a few light blueish pieces thrown in for interest.  Most of the neutrals were Friedlander fabrics, as I think she makes the best neutrals in the business, while the blues were a wide assortment of fabrics.  I didn’t buy any new fabric for this quilt (a first, I think), and you can see scraps of nearly every quilt I’ve made somewhere in this one.

For the back, I used primarily a couple of Lotta Jansdotter fabrics.  (She is another of my favorite designers.)

The binding is a pink print from Carolyn’s Carkai collection.

Batting

Once again I used my favorite batting, 100% wool from Quilter’s Dream.  As always, it’s a bit harder to work with, but I love how light and warm the resulting quilt is.  For this particular quilt, it does a nice job showcasing the free-motion quilting.

Thread

I did the entire quilt in Aurifil Make 50 Wt in White (2024).  This includes both the machine piecing, hand-applique of the circles, hand-sewing the binding, and the quilting.

Quilting

I copied the quilting that Carolyn did on her Aerial Grove quilt.  She did entirely straight-line quilting, vertical and horizontal, mostly alternating in direction and width from block to block.  The piecing beyond the middle is improvised, and I was definitely a little intimidated in try this approach for the first time, but I’m happy with how it worked out.  While this in theory could be done with a regular foot, I think you’d be mad with the turning by the time you were done, so I FMQed the entire thing.  The biggest challenge was going around the appliqued circles.

Binding

I did my usual double-fold binding hand-sewn to the back.  I also did a hand-appliqued label.

Right around the time I started this quilt, my brother and his wife became pregnant, after much waiting.  I can’t think of anyone I more wanted to make a quilt for than my brother’s first baby, Rita.  Anyway, hopefully the quilt will be well-beaten up by the next time I see it.