Well the quilt is not done (shocking I know). Remember how I said I had the top and back all made and ready to be basted as soon as I got my hands on some safety pins? Well apparently after a night to sleep and think it over I convinced myself that the backing I had already made (cut, pieced, sewn, pressed and ready to go) was not in fact the one I wanted to use. So I ripped it all out and went with plan B. I didn’t love the fabric that I had used even though it was the second one I had bought. I didn’t want to go back to the fabric store again and buy even more fabric that I wouldn’t end up loving, so I went with what is in hindsight the obvious choice – I cut up a few of their receiving blankets to piece together for the back. I actually really like how it turned out and I like that it is soft and flannely and cozy. It took almost and entire day to put that together and most of yesterday to do the quilting. I also decided (like a crazy person) that I wanted to use bias cut binding tape so I spent all last evening cutting and sewing and pressing that. I got it attached by machine to the front of the quilt and I’m (still like a crazy person) working on attaching the binding on the back by hand. Last night I was getting frustrated with my thread continually tangling and only managed to get a measly 5 inches done in a half hour. Ben calculated that at that rate I’ll be done in only 14 more hours. Great. Let’s hope I can speed it up a bit.

A few more little close up sneak peeks. I don’t want to show the whole thing until it’s totally done.

Currently overtaking my sewing room (oh who am I kidding, I don’t have a sewing room… currently overtaking my bedroom) is a project that I’ve had in mind ever since Paul and Amelia were born. One that I thought I’d do when they were a year old but I am just now getting around to it. Hey, at least I started right? I am going to take each of their infant wardrobes and make them into a quilt. I’m pretty bad about throwing things out, I’d much rather hold on to them indefinitely. Because you never know when you might need a somewhat stained onesie that your baby wore when they were still in the reflux stage right? This quilt was my answer to that problem. Instead of keeping all the clothes (including the stained bits) I’m cutting them all up (a process that was a bit painful but I think in the end worth it) and only using the clean swatches to make a (hopefully) beautiful quilt that will have all of the memories right in one spot. There are a few articles of clothing that I just COULDN’T cut up, like the sleepers they wore home from the hospital, their first Christmas and Easter outfits and their first birthday outfits, but pretty much everything else was fair game.

At this point I’m done with the quilt top and backing but have yet to baste, quilt and bind to finish it up. I was going to get through basting this evening but my safety pins went missing (maybe I misplaced them after the last quilt I made but if that’s the case they’re probably gone forever since we’ve moved in the meantime) so I had to call it a night. I’m hoping to get the whole thing quilted by the end of tomorrow night but we shall see. I remember from the last one that the binding was a very long and slow process so I’m not holding my breath on getting that finished tomorrow, maybe by the end of the week.

I didn’t get a picture of the top tonight since it was dark by the time it was finished (and you know how I hate icky incandescent lighting) so you’ll just have to be surprised when I show off the whole quilt Here are a few sneak peeks from the piecing process.