Baby quilt 1 is finished and gifted; Baby quilt 2 is done and almost gifted!

Yay! So many things got in my way of completing Baby Quilt 1, but it was finished AN ENTIRE 2 WEEKS before the baby shower last month!

There is nothing remarkable about this quilt other than it is DONE. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how I’ve allowed interruptions and distractions get in my way, and about 7 weeks ago on a Sunday I told the Hubs, “You go on; I have to finish this.” By the time he returned it was completed and I had moved on to work on a receiving blanket. 

Here’s the quilt:

As mentioned before, it's a variation of Missouri Star Quilt Co.'s Pecking Order quilt pattern. It was a fun and easy quilt to make. The border fabric dictated the colors I wanted to use. Turns out, Cindy already had a bunch of leftover scraps from the same fabric line, while I had none. She graciously offered them up to me and that was wonderful! Cindy, BTW, you still have a lot of scraps left!

The quilting was an edge-to-edge embroidery design from Designs by JuJu. More thoughts about E2E on an embroidery module in a future post.

While working on it, I realized that the other 6 I want to make do not have to be pieced, especially if my granddaughter wants to use them on a daily basis. So I think I mentioned in a previous post that an idea was circling my brain, but I saw a video that made me realize I am not the first to come up with the idea! I tried it out on this little number:

Yes, that's the only photo I have of it, and it's just as well. While it’s been gifted and is serviceable, I didn’t like the idea of the mitered border seemingly flapping in the wind. I’m going to experiment with these and see if I can come up with a better idea. 

But other baby sewing got done! One receiving blanket and embroidery on two little onesies. 

And the baby shower was lovely. We met Tim and his family—it’s wonderful to know he comes from a loving and supportive family. We had the best time visiting with his grandparents. 

So I’m trying to squeeze in bits of quilting here and there, mostly at lunch time or early in the morning AFTER 2 cups of coffee. Things at work had quieted down somewhat where I felt like I could actually walk away from the laptop and use my lunchtime to quilt. That’s been nice, but the last couple of weeks at work have been a bit chaotic. 

And so, with what I pray are the beginnings of a return to the new normal, we’ll be heading back into the office in a few months. I have mixed emotions about it; I feel I have finally adapted to working alone, but know that training and meetings are better in person. I have not missed wearing makeup, dressing up, and paying for parking. I struggled with the isolation aspects for awhile but got over it. At the moment we can have 25% of our staff in the office at one time; that’s 2 people. 🤷🏼‍♀️

In happier news, I have finished another baby quilt, this one for our neighbors. The baby was due in August, but while I was working on it two weeks ago the first-time daddy knocked on our door and told me he was on his way to the hospital, and mommy was already there. Their little girl was born later that afternoon and all are well! And I finished the quilt yesterday. I decided to go with a quick and easy project, one I’ve made before. This one is from 8 years ago:

Cruddy photo, I know. But I remembered it was fun to make. 

For this one, I didn’t stick to the pattern measurements and spaced out the words on the new one. I also stuck with a one-fabric inner border and non-scrappy binding. Quilting was stitch 1398 on The Beaut; it’s a serpentine style stitch and I quilted it using flannel for the batting. 

This one finishes at 51" x 54". Everything was done on The Beaut; it's the first full project she has completed. Goodness, she is lovely. 

Speaking of The Beaut, sister machine The Beast will probably be upgraded to a 770 Plus very soon--I'm very excited about having pinpoint placement for The Beast. She is a workhorse, and let's hope the upgrade doesn't go to her head and turn her into a diva. I cannot tolerate divas. 

More projects, baby and otherwise, are on deck. I hope to get a lot done this week. 

Go make!