Make Life!

Hooray!  I have finished my first quilt of 2012.  It's made from a charm pack of Sweetwater's Make Life, some Moda Bella Snow for the background, and polka dots from Make Life for the border and binding.  It's a lovely size for a baby quilt, so good thing that it has a new home with a sweet baby.

I made it for the daughter of a teacher that I work with.  I picked out the fabrics before I knew what the gender of the baby would be, but I knew that it would be perfect.  I used a pattern that I got from Carla at Moda Club last year.  It's super easy and quick to put together.  I really love the graphic quality of it too.  I may just have to make another one day!  It would also be fun to do with a layer cake.

For the backing I used a sweet Japanese print that I got on sale that has little soldiers and cats and dogs and trees marching in rows.  The colours are a fabulous match with the charm pack.  I had thought that I had enough to do the whole back, but it turned out that I was short a bit.  Luckily I had just the perfect amount of red dots left over from the border and binding.  I can't believe how perfectly that it worked out.

I quilted it 1/4" away from the seams; a kind of echo quilt, I guess.  It took quite awhile to get it all quilted.  I used my walking foot and did have some problems with the stitch tension.  Most of the quilting looks okay after I washed it.  I really love how crinkly and soft this quilt got after it came out of the dryer.

My new favourite way to do binding on baby quilts is by machine.  It is so much faster and it will hopefully hold up better to frequent washings.  I am becoming better at it with each quilt I make.

It feels good to get something done.  I can take delight in that!  I have been feeling a little overwhelmed by all my projects that are piling up.  Hopefully I can finish some other things up in the next little while.  I'll try to make up a blog post soon featuring some things I am working on.  Then you can keep me accountable to finishing them!

xo Nicole