Thursday, September 24, 2009

On A Roll

When my son was born, he got a quilt I made. The only reason I was able to give Ely this gift was because right before I found out I was pregnant with him, I took a beginning quilt class where I made and completed a crib size quilt. I originally made the smallest size so that I would be sure to finish it by the time the 6 week class was over, but then it seemed like serendipity that I chose to make a quilt for a baby when I was going to have one of my own. At the end of 2007, I was 7 months pregnant with #2 and had already decided this baby was not going to get a Momma-made quilt. I had no time and was tired from being pregnant, working 30 hours a week, and taking care of the family. But then the Purl Bee posted a new project designed by Molly for a zig zag quilt and I fell in love. The design was great, the fabrics were great, and the quilt was in my colors. Since I didn't know the sex of my baby, the zig zag quilt was the perfect non-boring, gender neutral quilt (though Molly does talk about how you can choose other color combinations.) So, I started a quilt for the baby with 2 months to go.
I replaced a few of the fabric choices with ones I already had, but I did order 2-D zoo by Alexander Henry since that fabric seemed to make the quilt. I remember when it arrived - it was even lovely and softer than I thought it would be. The piecing of the quilt was easy. The quilting was easy too, though by now my baby - a girl! - was 6 months old. I machine sewed the binding on the front, then procrastinated on hand sewing it to the back. At Christmastime, I got my sister-in-law to give me a lesson on blind stitching and I finished the quilt with a few weeks to go until Agnes's first birthday. I meant to put a label on it and give it to her as my gift, but I never did. Now more than 6 months later and feeling invigorated by finishing Jesse's quilt, I pulled Agnes's quilt out and quickly made a label using a kona cotton square that was already cut out and a micron pen. One episode of The Office, and the label was sewn on and the quilt was done!
It feels good to finish two big projects in the same week.

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