I knew I [...]]]> Hi guys!  I made this quickie over the weekend and thought I would share it.  Actually, you’re not going to believe this – but I picked out the fabrics Friday morning at my favorite local quilt shop and had it fully completed by 8 pm that night.  Fastest start-to-finish completion ever!

I knew I wasn’t going to have much time with my friend’s baby shower being two days from then, so I was intentional about keeping it simple.  I found a focus fabric at the quilt shop and chose fat quarters from the same fabric line to coordinate.  I cut the strips of printed fabric at 3” x 10 1/2” and sewed them into longer strips, some 3-long (end to end) and some 4-long.  I put a 3-piece strip next to a 4-piece strip and staggered the longer one so the seams wouldn’t match.  Then I trimmed it even with the 3-piece strip on both ends – yes, it wastes some fabric doing it that way, but it’s easy.  I put white sashing strips between the printed fabrics and added a white border to set off the colors.  Easy peasy lemon squeezy!

I cut the striped print length-wise and width-wise to vary the look.  Subtle, but more interesting, I think.

Here is the back.  A colorful city-scape.

What really sped up the quilting process in addition to using a non-marked meandering pattern was using spray adhesive to baste.  I had never used it before, and for the life of me, I DON’T KNOW WHY IT TOOK SO LONG! Sorry for the shouting.  It saved me so much time.  It was extremely easy not only for basting purposes, but also during the quilting process, I didn’t have to slow down and remove pins as I went along.  Spray basting baby quilts might be my new thing.  Lookout!  I think I’ll be looking into more economical quantities of spray adhesive, though.  The one I bought at the quilt shop was something like 3.4 oz. and I only got through 2 1/2 baby quilts before it was gone.  And that particular one had a SRP of $15.99.  It still saved me maybe an hour or more of time per quilt, so I didn’t mind too much, but hopefully it’s more cost effective in a larger can.

Here is a close-up of the binding.  First of all, I think striped fabrics are so cute for the binding even when they’re not cut on the bias.  Secondly, I have also been on a kick of using my sewing machine to attach the binding, both to the front and back of the quilt.  At the last retreat I went to, my friend Mandy told me she does most of her bindings that way (unless the quilt is for a show or otherwise has a lot of handwork in it).  She showed me an example of a binding she had machine stitched both ways. It looked nice and tidy, so I tried it too, and that said, I might not tack by hand again!  At least not for baby quilt.  It is another time-saver.  To finish the binding this way, I sewed the double fold binding to the back of the quilt first, with raw binding edges running along the edge of the quilt and then when that is done all the way around, flip it to the front and sew from the front side, just catching the folded edge of the binding.  From the back, it can be hit and miss – sometimes stitching into the binding itself, but it’s really not a big deal.  At least when you aren’t a perfectionist.  Here’s a full-disclosure shot of the back:

I guess in an ideal world, one wouldn’t be able to see the stitching for the binding at all.  But I say, it’s for a baby!  Babies aren’t usually snobbish about such things.

And just this morning, I finished the quilt top I started at the [...]]]> I spent a lot of time knitting this weekend, only a fraction of it fruitfully. That is to say, as I was starting, I couldn’t figure out the pattern and ripped several hundred stitches out when all was said and done.

And just this morning, I finished the quilt top I started at the quilting retreat I went to a couple of weekends ago. It’s for Jett, my 4 year old.

I didn’t plan for it to happen, yet here I am.

It started with this quilting/scrapbooking retreat I went to over a week ago. It was so much fun! There were a couple of totally hip moms there who knitted in addition to making quilts. They had some pretty gorgeous knitted [...]]]> I’m totally knitting, guys!

I didn’t plan for it to happen, yet here I am.

It started with this quilting/scrapbooking retreat I went to over a week ago. It was so much fun! There were a couple of totally hip moms there who knitted in addition to making quilts. They had some pretty gorgeous knitted things.

Fast forward to a week later, we had two house showings in one day. Translation: my house was clean. All of my quilting stuff is still at my in-laws’ house, and I was worried I wouldn’t have anything to do.

So I went to JoAnn’s and bought some cheap (Vanna White) yarn, watched a couple of YouTube videos and got started.

This was the first thing I did:

Heaven help me! It’s not supposed to be curvy, just so you know. It was supposed to be a scarf. Now it’s an abortion of a scarf. I stopped the madness and restarted another scarf with a looser grip on the needles & yarn and this one is actually working out. I’ll wait until I’m done to show you a picture.

I’m excited to go shopping for some nice yarn once I have my practice project done.

Scarves for EVERYONE for Christmas this year!

1. Jillisa

2. Momma Denise

3. Lois VanDusseldorp

Congrats, ladies!  Since I happen to know that Momma Denise also received the Food & Family subscription at Christmastime, I’m guessing she will want to gift this subscription to someone else.

Thank you everyone for participating!