"Hoot" - A Finished Baby Quilt

If you are following me on Instagram (quiltyhabit), you know that I started this quilt two days ago. Ha. Ha. Ha. But really, I can't believe how much work scrap quilts are! I should have known after Sedona, right?

Here's the thing. I needed to get this quilt done for a baby shower today - to welcome my 5th niece, who will be here in less than 2 months!! However, I just didn't have the inspiration. I had a stack of fabrics picked out but no definites (Mom wanted owls and purple). And, I'm not ashamed to admit I've been extremely preoccupied by my Modern Maples quilt (which is finally awaiting basting!). Anyway, I wanted the scene to be a tree in the middle of twilight. And I love it.



  I FMQed his little feet on the quilt top before basting! Otherwise, he would look like he was floating. :) We can't have that!

A pieced back with some favorite fabrics -  Central Park and a rose print that I can't get over (don't know the designer). Anyway, I sat down Thursday afternoon and cut. And cut. And pieced. Woo!



The rest of the quilt did not come together without incident, though! Yesterday afternoon, after work, I finished the top. And cut out the owl (all the while getting the husband's opinions: "Does this look like an owl?" "Are these eyes too big?" "Does this look like a tree?" He's very good with these kinds of things!). And appliqued. And pieced the backing. And basted. And free-motion quilted half of the quilt... oh wait.

Then it took me 2.5 hours (it was 9 pm) to unpick all my stitches and fix my machine because I wasn't sure what was causing my bobbin thread to go all wacky every time! I had never seen it this bad before! Agh... best laid plans, I guess. After doing everything under the sun that I could think of (needle changing, winding more bobbins with other thread, cleaning out machine, adjusting needle tension) before freaking out about a possible trip to the shop (ie not finishing the quilt on time), the husband came to the rescue and used his tiny screwdrivers to fix my bobbin case. He tightened the case and that was too much, so then he loosened it. Janome users, do not despair! Then, all was well. Except that it was 11:30 pm and I had a quilt to quilt and bind.

The quilting was the easy part :) I wanted whimsy, so I went with loops and stipples. Usually I would take more time to custom quilt, but a) there was no time and b) all-over, I think, suited this style quilt the best.



Alright, so guys, I've tried the machine binding thing before, and it just DID NOT work for me. I've tried it at least three times with different tutorials and I've been disappointed by the results (probably a mix between me and somewhat confusing directions). NOT this time though; my friend Ashley just came out with a very clear and super short tutorial on machine binding. And guess what? I'm really proud of it. I'm going to keep practicing because it's so. dang. fast. I do like the hand sewing to the back, but after a while, my hands start to hurt, even when I split it up... AND it takes about 4 hours to hand sew a lap size or larger. I'll take 30 minutes at the machine, thank you very much!! (Ashley, you are officially the best!).

 

I hope the baby loves it! It was a hit at the baby shower, if I may say so myself (I got asked for business cards and "how long did that take?" so it's nice to know that people appreciate handmade so much!). 

Whew. I thought I would take a break tonight, but I think it's time to sew again. :) 

Linking up to: Fabric Tuesday @ Quilt Story, Sew Cute Tuesday @ Blossom Heart Quilts, Needle and Thread Thursday @ My Quilting Infatuation, Crazy Mom Quilts, TGIFF.