I have wanted to make regular twin size quilts for my twin granddaughters, Adelyn and Hazel, for a while now. Previous to now I’ve made them a couple of quilts - but nothing as big as a bed size.

Here’s what I’ve done so far. The girls are currently 5 1/2 years old.

The first ones I made I called “Focal Point”. While we know that baby quilts are supposedly for the babies, they are actually for the mom. Right? The baby doesn’t care. I promise. It could be anything, as long as it is warm!

The pattern is here.

The next one I made was this one - knowing that they liked pink and monkeys, according to my son.

I tried to work both into this quilt. I named these “Mini Treasures”. The pattern is here. It is shadow quilt and I tried to fussy cut things that I thought the girls would like.

But now it is time to make the girls, who at 5 look like they are 8 or 9, each a regular twin size quilt.

But what to do?

Let me say…I’m starting with a bit of a head start. Adelyn likes purple and Hazel, pink, so that is a given.

Now, recently, the girls have decided that one likes dogs and one likes cats.

Let me explain my philosophy of quilts for children.

Children really don’t appreciate intricate piecing. (I am sure there are probably a few exceptions.)

When my children were young, they preferred hamburgers to steak - so why try to force feed them steak, which is more expensive, than hamburgers? I just gave them hamburgers.

When they were given fancy food - they didn’t really like it. Why waste valuable, expensive food on a children’s palate or make elaborate meals that my children didn’t appreciate or even like?

This mom didn’t.

I think quilts for kids are like that. The FABRIC is vital (or possibly the design - if you make fish, or a pixelated design, etc.). A whole lot of scraps might not excite them. An intricate design probably isn’t going to be appreciated all that much.

I think a person should try to match the quilt with the recipient, as probably all of you do too.

So back to the same question - what to do?

I decided to go back to their names. I didn’t know what to do, but I didn’t want to do a lot of applique and spell out their whole name. I find it difficult to quilt and I just didn’t feel like it. Maybe next time when they are older.

But I found a fun alphabet - and while this one is colored as a rainbow, I wanted to use the idea and make them into pink and purple letters.

Let me encourage you to download this TODAY if you want it. I’ve seen this kind of thing disappear - don’t just bookmark it. It’s free right now.

I don’t want to take the photo from the other website, but this is the link to the alphabet. The letters look sort of like a Times Roman font - and are totally cool.

So I started by making these letters.

The girls’ names are Adelyn and Hazel.

When I made these blocks, I changed the actual layout to my own coloring- so I’m showing you below the grid layout.

I did decide to alternate the light to dark on the letters as you can see - one of them starts with dark and one letter starts with light. The A only used 6 shades while the H, a much longer letter, used 8.

And I know…these are lower case letters. I also know that names are supposed to start with a capital letter. However…..I decided to try it - let it be modern!

Their poor mom- she’ll be the one stuck with teaching them to make sure they capitalize their names - even if their quilt has it in lower case letters.

(Sorry, Jessica. I hope it doesn’t cause you too many problems!)

I used 2.5” squares and literally made them following this layout. Of course, I strip pieced as much as possible when making these!

I made up a little sheet of paper to help me keep the colors in line as I worked on these. It was like a “bargello” layout - albeit a small one - so I made these “master lists of color coding” just for me. With one of them, I worked from the top to the bottom and the other, from the bottom to the top. My important point was to not get the shades mixed up as to order as I sat at my machine and worked using my made up color scheme.

We do have some Paw Patrol flannel - here

The girls are currently having a love affair with Paw Patrol, so last fall I picked up this fabric at Hobby Lobby.

I’m planning on using all of it along with their corresponding favorite color for the backing.

My husband laughed at me as I went to Hobby Lobby last fall and told him I just wanted to buy maybe 2 yards of this Paw Patrol and ended up buying 6 yards! (He was waiting in the car and it was a couple of days before we were going to return to Poland.)

I am planning on making them each two pillowcases as well. So, I’ll see how much I will have left. My only fear of using Paw Patrol as a major part of the front of the quilt (so I’m not) is that it makes it more dated to their 5-year-old selves and less “useful” as a quilt that will last them many years.

But I know if they love it, they love it and so I’m compromising by putting it on the back (and I’m thinking about making them each a pillowcase with it).

Pillowcases are cool!!! If you’ve not made any yet, consider it - esp. for children or people who have special passions! You can find fabric they would love and tailor make a unique pillowcase for them. I’ve mentioned it before—but I didn’t “get” the appeal until I made a couple. Now, I’m convinced! They are so FUN!

I should be able to show the tops tomorrow.

Oh look what we got this afternoon about 5:15 pm