Our Halloween Baby: TWO Journal Quilts Honoring Her!

Forty-six years ago this week we were impatiently awaiting the birth of our first child.  She was due on something like October 15, so by this point, she was nearly two weeks overdue.  My mother had come on the due date to help out after we brought the baby home from the hospital, and needless to say, she was getting impatient, too!  Finally on Halloween night, our baby girl Kathy was born.  It was fun for all of our family through the years for her to have a Halloween birthday!  Many, many combination Halloween and birthday parties resulted.  I like to say that all three of our children have "special" birthdays.  Our son and youngest daughter share the same birthday, with Susan arriving on Rob's 5th! 

This year I decided to commemorate both Halloween and Kathy's birthday with a journal quilt.  Actually, the third try has proved to be the charm for this little quilt.  The first one I made, I goofed up by using a damp press cloth while fusing down some ink-jet-printed appliques, and of course, the ink ran and ruined the little quilt.  The second one turned out too"busy" and confusing looking, with just too much going on in such a small space.  But today's worked out just fine!  Actually I used ideas from each of the failures:  the printed words from the first one and the cupcake and little girl witch from the second!

The third journal quilt--my favorite!

After writing this, I checked my emails.  Several friends to whom I sent a picture of my journal quilt #2 seemed to like it!  So I am posting a picture of it, too, for comparison.  I told them that the picture looked better to me than the quilt in person!  I did like what one friend wrote:  Halloween is such a busy, fun-filled holiday, and the "busy" background on this quilt seems to capture that spirit!



The 2nd quilt--first rejected, now included!