A Baby's Quilt

I've been digging around in the loft (attic) for ages to find the quilts I made for my children when they were babies. I've had one success - this quilt that I made for my daughter, Helen 34 years ago.  Now she has a baby, born last week and called Flora. I'll be making a quilt for Flora as soon as I come up with a suitable design.  Helen wants flowers for Flora's name and I think it could have other things as well such as butterflies and even a garden gate. I've looked on Pinterest and Etsy and I've found a few quilts to inspire me, but I want it to be an original so I must let the ideas develop and then I will get started. Sometimes it's best to  play around with the design and then begin.  I have lots of pieces of Liberty tana lawn for the flowers, but I don't know what to use for the background yet.

I made Helen's quilt using a ditsy print for the background and then picked out the colours from that. The sheep are fleece (what else?) and the clouds are broiderie anglaise. The heads and legs of the sheep are small floral prints too, but in darker tones than the background. I was very  brave and did a bit of hand embroidery for the hills and Helen's name. I'm hoping I can still do that. I haven't done any embroidery for years. I wanted to keep it soft, so it is tie quilted. It was never on a bed or a cot, but used as a wall hanging in the nursery and it has never been washed which is why it has retained its shape. I'm afraid to wash it so I may take it to my dry cleaners and see if they can freshen it up without flattening it. Today I hung it up temporarily so I could photograph it and I am enjoyihg looking at it. I'm amazed that I managed to make it with two very small children to look after. What I remember it that it was a glorious escape. Many sewists say that sewing is their happy place and it was certainly mine, even though I remember their childhoods with pleasure.

I will have to brave the loft (not fun) to find the other one. Wish me luck.