Baby Quilt - Finished and Gifted

Well, seems like I'm developing a monthly blogging habit. I don't want to post things just to post, though - my favorite bloggers are the ones that feel the most authentic. I'm not a "writer," in that writing is not a natural skill of mine and I don't feel a pull to create written work. I do, however, like gathering my thoughts, and that's what this blog is. It's a place to focus on what I've done or what I'm doing, but when I just don't have the time, it gets pushed off my to-do list pretty quickly.

I've been trying to record more things photographically speaking, though. I'm trying for a picture a day - or, to be more accurate, a picture per day. Meaning I may take 6 pictures on a Saturday and call them the week's pictures. I'm about three pictures short right now, so I'm not doing too bad.

In other news, I finished the baby quilt a while back, actually got pictures of it, and gifted it today! It was a project that I started without a specific recipient, and I ended up giving it to a young woman at my church who's pregnant with her first baby, a little boy. Here it is, complete:

I don't know the finished size - good for cuddling, I hope. It's cotton on the front, flannel on the back.
You can see how I pieced the back if you look closely, but the pattern is busy enough that it wasn't super obvious. I hope it gets lots of love and holds up well. Let the quilting adventures continue!

Weekend Sewing

This weekend is all about Etsy sewing, but I'm hoping to make some time for this project, too:

Yes, that's 90210 playing - the original

I'm just finishing hand stitching the binding. I used the Heather Bailey tutorial, available here.

As usual, I had a few small issues but nothing major. I didn't leave myself quite enough binding at the end and had trouble getting the ends sewn together. After a bit of time and ripping out some stitches I finally got it to work. I wrapped the binding around an old jar and unwound it as I went. I liked not having to fuss with a big length of binding falling all over the place. I think I'd do that again.

I also didn't think too much about the seam allowances. I sewed about half of one edge before thinking to test it and make sure it would wrap around correctly. It did not. More ripping of stitches and we were good to go.

I really like seeing the binding getting finished. It makes the quilt feel so pulled together. I can't wait to wash and dry it and see how nice and rumpled it gets. But I really need to work on Etsy items, so this project is on the waiting list.