Stacked Up And Gone

The binding is finished, the label is done, and the quilt is on its way to the little fella (born last Thursday). I was sad to send it off, because it was around for just one week (and only a couple of days in finished form) - very little time to bond and part with a quilt!

The quilt measures about 40" x 30" - I was told by my first baby-quilt recipient that that size worked perfectly for her new-born, so I'm sticking with it.

I put some of my favourite fabrics on this quilt, including the daft-looking sheep...

As mentioned before, it's stippled all over, but I promised myself to experiment with straight lines next time.


The back is light blue circus-themed flannelette.

Here's a close-up of the pattern; I used a neutral coloured 100% cotton thread for piecing and quilting.

And of course, invisible binding a la turning*turning:

Stacked Coins Are All Stacked Up

Finished quilting the stacked coins baby quilt. I really like it. I debated for a while what colour binding to use. I had some 2.5" strips of blue green fabric already cut from another project, and was going the lazy route, when I realized that I just didn't like that colour enough and went and cut dark blue 2" strips instead for a tighter and more masculine binding.

While I was cropping the quilt, I realized, shock oh shock, that I once again (grumble) had some of the overhanging backing slip under the needle and be incorporated into the stippling. Aaargh!!!


Last time this happened, I opened the stippling up and re-sewed. This time I tried picking out the fabric and leaving the stippling in place.


It worked except for one single stitch that ripped (probably because I was on the phone at the time and distracted).


So I had to get the machine out and sew over it anyway, sigh. But I think it'll be okay. Still though, annoying... maybe I'll learn from it this time. New resolution: crop sandwich to within 1" of top before quilting!!!

I'm doing the invisible stitch again, what a great method that is!

One evening of half watching a movie yielded almost half a quilt bound. Almost done!

Forgot The Camera

I was so productive yesterday but forgot to bring the camera to download the photos... next time! Instead, I'll give you a sneak pre-view of the fabrics for the bento box quilt that I'll write a tutorial for when it's done. Being finished is kind of a pre-requisite for a tutorial, isn't it? Otherwise it's more of a quilt-along. Those are a lot of fun too, I bet...

Bento Box fabric pairs

But I pinned and quilted the baby quilt (stacked coins) so it's ready for binding, and I also re-visited the pink quilt, as there was nothing holding me back from finishing it other than the deadlines for the bento box quilt (it's for a wedding in July) and the baby quilt (baby due this week, not mine ;). I even have the binding strips joined already! So I finished the backing yesterday, and I'll probably pin it today.

Here's an old picture to refresh your memory :)

Is it wrong of me to say that I hate pinning large quilts??? I always imagine my rented hardwood floor getting totally scratched from all the needles piercing through the fabrics on their way through the sandwich, but so far, I haven't found any scratches yet (after every quilt, I lift it off the ground with trepidation ;)

I know some of you have recommended the basting spray before, but I have to say that a) I'm (probably unreasonably) suspicious of spraying anything onto a quilt when it's so close to completion, and b) I like to use pins as I can re-use them. It's my minimalistic streak. I might try the spray on a baby quilt some of these days, though.

A propos the baby quilt. I really really didn't want to stipple it, and I started 10 cm of a different pattern, but hated it, so ... I went back to stippling. I need to come up with something else, but stippling just seems to be the fastest (other than straight lines with the walking foot) - an important factor when the quilt has a dead line - and looks nicest for the free-motion quilting.

If anyone of you lovely blog visitors and quilters has some suggestions, send them my way, please!