Quilting: Gray Skies Are Gonna Clear Up

I missed the December 25th deadline for this present (Christmas Eve and Christmas Day kind of got in the way), but a day after the holiday I finished stitching in the ditch.  I then took another day to finish the binding (AND I had to redo joining the binding ends three times) and quilt label, so yesterday I finally delivered it to its recipient before he returns home to Southern California this Saturday.  I fell more and more in love with the quilt after it was complete.  I thought I would've tired of making this paper foundation pieced quilt a second time, but I love it so much that I look forward to making the red and pink color way for Valentine's Day and then the purple one for a March birthday.

Breakfast: Eggs

Day 1:  Egg in a Hole

Day 2:  Herb-Baked Egg (I forgot to add butter but still delicious!)

Day 3:  Huevo Ranchero (hmm my favorite but I'll always cook herb-baked eggs)

Preparation, Preparation, Preparation

Yesterday I had to stay after work to proctor final exams for a student.  It was a perfect situation.  I parked him in my office with its glass windows and installed myself outside in the reference section to use the big tables to pin baste a quilt.  Below I've pressed the backing by shifting an ironing pad all over.

Next the backing.  Pressing the batting on the table itself rather than shifting the batting from ironing board to backing taped on the floor and then being on my hands and knees after first moving my couch and coffee table to smooth the layers in my tiny condo was so much LESS ARDUOUS.

Lastly the quilt top.  I've my fingers crossed on there being no major puckers.  Lots more smoothing and again less arduous as I was able to walk around the table to tug and smooth, tug and smooth, tug and smooth...

Pin basting done!  I had wondered if I should've bought more safety pins.  This quilt sandwich is rolled up in my car, ready to be stitched in the ditch which I probably will sew on this same table because I am proctoring the next exams for the same student.

Quilting: My Circus, My Monkeys

Below is my finished quilt.

I used red, black, brown and purple thread on the quilt top and natural thread in the bobbin.  I'm glad for the most part that I used thread to blend in with the fabric colors which hides your stitching mistakes the best.  My stitching got straighter and less crooked in the stops and starts, and I lamented all those hiccups in my quilting.  However, DONE IS BETTER THAN PERFECT.  And really all those machine quilting instructors are right, you'll never get better if you don't practice.  I've never yet sent out a quilt top to be finished by someone else.  I rather love that I've been in on the whole quilt from beginning to end.

Below is the scrappy back including the inspirational fabric, and lastly my quilt label.  As with all the kid quilts I've sewn, I hope the quilt will not be precious but functional.  I want its recipient to drag this blankie in the mud and that this quilt will have to repeatedly be laundered from constant, daily use.

The Arduous but Important Task of Basting Before Quilting

Golly I will miss these funky monkeys, but they sure were inspirational for the funky monkey bars quilt top. 

I did not want to lose any of the monkey fabric in the back, and so I sewed panels on either side of it for the scrappy back.  I used a half inch seam allowance (mostly!) in piecing the scraps leftover from the quilt top.  My Saturday morning was also spent pressing, starching and then taping this scrappy back to the floor (I've no table big enough and even had to push back my coffee table and couch to make room for the quilt).  And then pressing and layering the batting over it.  And then pressing and starching (and noticing the that the top is not square but hopefully fixable or trimmable after quilting)and layering the quilt top followed by pin basting the sandwich on my hands and knees which took at least an hour and a half.  I pin a lot when I sew and even more when I pin baste!

Crib Quilts for Christmas

Below is the quilt top for my husband's niece's 2-year-old son, Grayson, in a blue and gray, of course, color way.

I've had this Funky Monkey fabric for years.  I love sock monkeys but never had the inclination to use this juvenile fabric.  The recent birth of my husband's niece's baby, Alexander, is the impetus for finally using this fabric which will be the back of a modern baby quilt.

Even though I'm not the most careful or skilled piecer, I felt a need to try improvisational quilting or of having a little bit of randomness in my quilt blocks.  I kept itching to use my ruler while making the blocks below; however, I did use the grid lines on my mat as a guide for freehand rotary cutting the strips for the funky monkey, a.k.a this monkey bars quilt.

I was definitely out of my comfort zone in making these wonky striped blocks.

I'll be horizontally sashing in between these 60.5" wide strips and am wondering if I can effect a more modern look by not sashing the perimeter of the quilt.