It's about time

I am finally writing a blog post!  Last week was a crazy one for me.  I had two quilts to get ready for my trip to Virginia. I was having trouble sleeping so I was finding it difficult to fit sewing into my schedule.  I think my body is trying to tell me that getting up at 3am to sew before getting ready for work is a bad idea!

The first quilt was for the daughter of dear friends.  Her little boy was born in October around the time of my "Christmas rush" so this was the first opportunity I had to make a quilt for her son, Jackson.  I used fabrics that I had used to make a commissioned quilt last month.  I think the fabric choice was perfect - especially for a Christening gift.

I also had to finish the quilt for Andrew's birthday.  I may never quilt with flannel again!  I washed all the flannel at least once and washed the red three times to get rid of extra dye.  I had pre-washed all my chenille months ago when I washed as I bought about 5 yards and have been  using it in different projects.  (I love it on the back of burp cloths!)  This time I decided to use it as the focal fabric and used "Four on the Floor" for the quilting pattern.  Because the flannel seemed to stretch (and goodness knows it frays like crazy) I finished every single seam of every block, of every row.  It added hours to the construction but I know this quilt is not going to fray and come apart with repeated washing!  Originally I was going to mount it on the long arm and use a minkee-type fabric for the backing.  When I finished assembling the quilt top, I discovered that I was over zealous in sizing and did not have enough minkee for the backing.  I ran to Joann's and picked up a couple of yards of their Soft and Cuddly line of fabric that was half price.  I brought that home and washed it though I was pretty sure that because of the poly in the fabric it wasn't going to shrink.

I love the chenille squares against the flannel pieced squares!

I totally chickened out on quilting it.  I quilted the top with a layer of really inexpensive cotton batting using a piece of (pre-washed) muslin for the backing.  I used the walking foot for everything except the outside border where I free-motioned a large meander.  With all the quilting completed, I sewed the quilt right sides together to the fluffy fabric, flipped it right side out and sewed the small opening closed.

I  turned the back up so you could see the backing.  There is a diamond shaped pattern across fabric which gives it some nice additional texture.

I made the mistake of then trying to top stitch around the edge and about midway through I realized I didn't like it so I ripped out the top stitching.  The finished quilt is soft, cuddly and has lots of body.  Drew likes it (and I received several requests for something similar for grown ups)!

Drew shares a room with his big brother, Alex.  Alex is crazy about trains so their room is decorated with a train theme.  The quilt ended up big enough to move from the crib to a youth bed when the time comes.  The most  important thing I learned in making this particular quilt is that sometimes you just have to change your plans and go with the flow!  I also learned that if you are going to work with minkee or something similar, you will need your walking foot.

Basically, making two baby quilts was my ENTIRE sewing for last week.  This week I am making a table runner for a hostess gift (no way I could get to it last week) that I need to send to Virginia.  Since I have a little over a yard of the minkee fabric I was originally planning to use for Drew's quilt, I think I may make a small baby quilt to add to my "for sale" pile.  I don't know what I am going to piece for the quilt top but I am pretty sure it won't be flannel!