Baby Sewing!

No, not for me!  My friend Angie will be having a little boy - Samuel - in the coming weeks!  She is a big fan of homemade gifts, which works out perfectly for me.  I already sent her some bibs and burp cloths when she first found out she was expecting but now that it is getting close it is time to up the ante.

May I present, Sam's quilt (or more accurately at this point, Sam's quilt top)-

I purchased some Karma Baby by Mint Blossom for Northcott Fabrics probably close to a year ago and am SO happy that I finally have the perfect thing to use it for!  I have never given away a quilt before (a blanket, but not a quilt) and am soooo excited to get this one finished and sent off to Angie and Sam!  I know it will be appreciated and that makes parting with it easy (normally I hoard the things I make).

The back is pieced using extra yardage that I had.  I have a tendency to find fabrics that I like and buy them with no real thought in mind to what pattern I will use them for.  So instead I just randomly choose yardage amounts based on how much I like the fabric instead of how I will use it.  Thank goodness it worked in my favor this time (just barely, but still counting it as a win- tiny scraps of the paisley and the green elephants which I will discuss later). 

My plan it to take this up to a Gammil dealer in the coming weeks and quilt it on a longarm- so excited!  I have been toying with the idea of purchasing one, even though I have never actually quilted anything more than some practice stitches at a quilt show on one.  I am a total Angela Walters groupie though (quiltingismytherapy.com) and have both her books and desperately want to learn to quilt like she does.  I have done a few pillows using her book as inspiration, but feel so limited by my little machine.  I want a big ol' longarm to play with!

On a different note, check out my creative quilting hanging for pictures system- 

Nails + binder clips! I tried washi tape first- how the heck do people do that?  Maybe it works with quilt blocks since they are smaller but it definitely does not work with whole quilts.  I came up with this system instead.  You do what you have to when you are the only one home and want to take pictures!