Sam's Quilt

Sam's quilt is all finished and ready to be sent off to the adorable new baby boy!  A few days ago I drove to a quilt shop about 30 minutes north of me and quilted it on their longarm- so fun!  But a lot more work than I anticipated.  I never really thought about how you actually get the quilt onto the frame (pinning, it turns out) and I never considered that you would still have to baste it (just the edges and you do it with the longarm, but still never realized you had to do it).  I quilted it using a pattern- I had planned to custom quilt it a la Angela Walters and was all prepared with the sketches but when I showed the girl at the shop she - in a nice, round about way - told me I was a bit ambitious with that for my first go.  I realized she was probably right and decided to use a pattern.  It was also a more open design and therefore probably softer than my custom quilting would have been.  Better for baby.

I thought it might be easier for you to see the quilting on the back, but it looks like it isn't really coming across in the photo.  Sorry.  For anyone who saw my first post about this quilt, yes, the backing is slightly different.  I took out the dark green elephant print that was the vertical stripe and replaced it with this lighter print.  I figured it would hide any messy quilting stitches better than the dark fabric (especially with the light thread color).

Another "first" accomplished on this quilt was my first quilt label- also way more work than I expected.  I played around with different wording for the label, then different colors, different fonts, different stabilizers...  Finally I had the label and had to figure out how to attach it.  I managed to sew WonderUnder onto the front, put a slit in it and turn the label but it took a few tries.  Fyi, WonderUnder tears very easy it turns out.  Once I had it ironed on I wanted a cleaner edge so I grabbed some embroidery floss and attempted my first blanket stitch. 

My final "first" on this quilt- giving it away!  I have never given a quilt to anyone outside my family before (and by "give" I mean my mom is the only one who has ever taken one of my quilts from me).  Usually I am very protective and I want to keep the stuff I make- only child syndrome aka "its mine and you can't have it".  But I am SO excited to send this off to Angie and baby Sam!! Angie appreciates handmade items so it definitely helps to know that it will be so used and loved in her home.