Fun in the Desert: Sewing Weekend at My Mother's House

Sewing is so much fun. It's so rewarding when you create something pretty or beautiful or cute. You had all these pieces of fabric and you put them all together in a pleasing way. It's even more fun when you do it with a friend. And it's faster!! And then you come up with something like this baby quilt:

This is the project that my friend Kim and I started a couple of weekends ago. We were at a sewing day at our friend Sue's house. Sue's first grandbaby was due anytime during that last sewing day, so Kim and I were racing the clock, so to speak. Kim and I got the center of the quilt top made during our sewing day at Sue's.

In between that sewing day at Sue's and the sewing weekend at my mother's house (sleepover involved!), the baby boy arrived!! I hear he's pretty darned cute. I've seen some photos and he looks pretty cute to me.

Then we got together at my mother's house for sewing weekend with finishing the new baby's quilt first on the list. Kim measured the center of the top, then measured and cut the borders. Then she stitched the borders to the quilt along with the four-patch cornerstones. Isn't this top just the cutest?

But wait!! We're still not done. It needs to be quilted. That was my task. First, you layer and baste. The back is this fun duck fabric!!

We decided that I would do a free motion, free hand loopy quilting pattern. We wanted it to be whimsical. After all, this baby was born into a fun loving family with a great sense of humor.

I practiced a bit on my muslin square until I got the hang of it. Then on to the real quilt. Here is a photo of the quilt with the quilting in progress.

Quilting requires concentration. You must pay attention to what you're doing or you get something you don't want in your quilt. It requires all other thoughts and distractions to go away for a while. You also have to remember to breathe! And relax your shoulders. Every so often, I lost track of what direction I wanted to go with my loopy swirls. A little break, a look at what I had, then off I went again with my machine and my thread and that little quilt. Then a while later, the quilting was done!!

But wait!! There's more! The quilt needed to be bound. The kit came with this fun turquoise fabric. Kim stitched the binding on the front of the quilt, then turned and hand stitched it to the back. Kim is fast!!

More pictures of the fun quilt. Doesn't that great blue binding just set off all the rest of the colors in the quilt!?

Kim quickly wrapped the quilt and Sue arrived later and in time to unwrap it, inspect it, ooh and ahh appropriately, then rewrap it for the parents to unwrap it once again. I hear tell that Sue took it to the baby that evening after sewing time and he fussed on it. I hope he likes it better after he gets used to it.