Tumbling Blocks with a Twist

I learned that I was pregnant with my first baby about 6 months after my wedding and when I shared this news with my best childhood friend I discovered that she too was pregnant with her first baby (nearly 6 years after her wedding).  We couldn't believe the timing.  We were due within two weeks of each other.  I wanted to make the babes matching quilts.  I still had tumbling blocks in my mind because of how I'd used them unconventionally to make Jewish stars in our wedding chuppah.  So I returned to the tumbling blocks idea for Noah and Luke's quilts.  I just love how three-dimensional they look.  I'd learned a lot since the days of my roman square, so I worked carefully to make sure the fabrics created the right sense of shadow and depth. The pictures don't show it very well, but there are several different light, dark, and medium fabrics in Noah's quilt, because I find I often like to use as many fabrics as possible.  Back then, childless, I had more time on my hands, and so I created all these custom little appliqué images to go in the quilts as well.  Noah's green and yellow room was inspired by the enormous old cherry tree out his window and I wanted to make a quilt that represented things we would find outside his window, so between the tumbling blocks are a squirrel, moon, leaf, ladybug, moon, sun, cloud, dragonfly, flower, bird, caterpillar, bee, and butterfly.  Luke's room had a jungle theme going, so he had giraffes, lions, alligators, palm trees, snakes, and elephants.

Luke's jungle-themed tumbling blocks quilt

Noah's "Outside My Window" tumbling blocks quilt