Snug as a Bug: Baby Wren's quilt

So the stars finally lined up and I visited Erinn and Baby Wren looking presentable enough to take pictures and Erinn and I actually remembered that we wanted to take pictures of the baby in the quilt. Yeah, she was nearly 2 months old at the time of this photo, oops.

I wanted to share the one last photo of my first quilt with my very first happy customer. :)

Wren is clearly exhausted by my efforts to entertain her. :)

First Post of 2oh12

Recap: My lack of bloggaging as Christmas neared was due to the fact that I tried to cram 290534598 zillion DIY gifts into 2 weeks. Okay, not really that many, all I really did was finish Wren's quilt and I made the beau-friend a cornhole board set thanks to a lovely online cheat sheet. Here's how mine ended up. Since I WAY overestimated how ginormous these things really are (I thought a 2'x4' box would fit in my suitcase, d'oh), I had to present them like so for the Christmas morning gift presentation:

Photo of finished cornhole boards and 2 corn bags.

I finished Project: Baby Quilt while Mama Erinn was still in the hospital from her emergency appendectomy and the times I've visited since then, and the times I've visited since then we haven't gotten around to snapping some pics of Baby Wren with her quilt. But here are the shots I got before it left my apartment.

Sneak peek(s)!

I'm getting closer each night to finishing the binding on Baby Wren's quilt. Sadly the shower for her mommy at work got canceled due to an emergency appendix removal (bummer). So I'm just trying to finish it now to bring to the hospital for baby.

I've also just gotten back my quilt from Janet's Quilting Bee where I let them quilt my creation from class, if you've been following my progress on Facebook, this is my (almost) finished product. I'll tackle the binding after Christmas.

Here are the pictures!

Finished quilt top. I AM IN LOVE.

Finished quilted back, notice that cute little guy, bottom left. ;)

I did this little applique of the wren on my own, it looks neater now though.

ALMOST done with all of the binding, this was 2 nights ago,
so I've only got 1/2 of a side left now.

My quilt from class at Janet's.

Project: Quilt the Baby Quilt

Oh hi, followers! After taking a vacation over Thanksgiving (Cozumel in November is fabulous) and finishing up my 8-week quilting class at the local quilting shop, I'm back to my crafting ways just in time to make Christmas gifts!

First on my plate is to complete Erinn's baby quilt. The mystery is solved, Baby Wren Louise made her grand entrance on the day after Thanksgiving and she is quite the beauty. I have no doubt she will love my heartfelt creation, and her mother is one that I know will appreciate it. I surrendered my quilt top from class to the skilled hands of the ladies with the long arm and that quilt will be quilted professionally before Christmas. But for Baby Wren's quilt, I knew the design I wanted to quilt would be able to be done by my cheapo Singer Simple (looking at getting a new machine from my parents for Christmas).


So without further ado, here are some progress shots of how the quilting is coming. I've done more since these photos were taken, but so far I'm very proud of myself. It's looking MUCH better than the futile attempt I made a few years ago, someday I'll get around to showing off that piece of work...

Back of the quilt

Front of the quilt

I am so in love with this project, I almost don't want to give it away, especially considering I've literally put my blood, sweat, and tears into it. Quilting is definitely a labor of love!

Project: Finger Stitching

WARNING: Not for those with weak stomachs!

So today has not been my day at all. As I type this, I am still feeling the pains of a very valuable lesson in sewing. Lesson: Sewing machine needles pass much easier through fabric than fingers. Turns out there's a lot less blood with fabric, too.

From the first time I started using my sewing machine I'd always been told, "Don't get your finger caught under the needle," much in the same fashion as A Christmas Story's young Ralphie was warned, "You'll shoot your eye out!"

Well, just as Ralphie did, in fact, shoot the lens out of his boyish glasses, I attempted to make the tip of my finger a permanent part of Baby C's quilt. The result was bloody and rendered many tears. It also left my needle in four pieces. Like the JFK "Magic Bullet" theory, I'm still trying to figure out exactly how and where the needle went in and out. My best guess is it entered at the top of my fingertip, went all the way through to break my fingernail and then when I pulled away is when it ripped.

This was definitely a time I could/should use these vulgar little bandages I bought at Urban Outfitters a couple years ago. But sadly, I decided to go for the old fashioned ones.

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

It looks much worse than this in real life.

Ouch!

Broke my fingernail from the inside! And I just painted my nails last night!

My poor needle was a casualty.

Progress on Project: Baby Quilt

So as Erinn is inching closer and closer to her Nov. 15 due date, I'm trying my best to finish this quilt so the baby can have it by maybe Christmas. We're actually crossing our fingers for an 11-11-11 birthday. But anyway - here's an update on the quilt progress. I've gotten all of the squares sewn into rows. Next I'll sew the rows together. I have that strip of fabric beside the quilt because I plan to do a pretty thick border to give it some more size. Right now the quilt measures around 28 inches wide by approx. 36 inches tall.

Without further ado, here's what we're looking like at this point:

Project: Baby Quilt

So my good friend, coworker, and evil twin, Erinn Carty, is expecting a mysterious baby within the coming weeks. I say mysterious because she's not found out the sex, so whether the world is about to be blessed with a new baby boy or girl is a mystery to all! In my recent crafting spree and since I'm taking this quilting class, I thought a quilt would be the perfect gift for Baby. Now I had considered waiting until Baby is born to make the quilt, but a mid-November birthday means this baby is going to need a warm quilt ASAP. So I dug through my trusty ol' craft box and found this set of lovely fabric squares I'd bought a year or so ago on Etsy. I found a simple pattern to follow using squares I've learned in quilting class, and voila. I went to Hancock Fabrics tonight and bought a nice khaki Kona Cotton as the filler fabric.
 
Here's the beginning. I'll update as I go...

Inspiration photo

Scattered 5 inch squares

I then pressed the neutral squares to the printed fabric

Action shot of the ironing

Okay, here's where I get a little crafty. I don't have my 
1/4 inch foot yet  and I don't trust myself to eyeball a 1/4 inch seam. 
So I drew my line down the diagonal and then measured 1/8 in. on each 
side for my seams to make the half-square triangles

After stitching the seams. 
My cheating method of drawing the lines helped a lot!

First two I finished and squared off. 
The quilt will be comprised of 80 squares just like this.