Baby Quilt + More

 So, I finished a project. Woohoo! It was my first "big" quilt. As mentioned before, my first project is the cathedral quilt - that's a long term investment currently on the back burner. This project is for my nephew who is a wee lad, shorter than three feet. This is the finished product:

Yey! It took be 7 days, 6 hrs a day. The fabric is a fat quarter brushed cotton bundle, Grow With Me by Deb Strain for Moda Fabrics that I bought at an end of year sale at Burgundy Buttons had, a bit of brown flannel from Wal-Mart, and yellow checkered flannel from a bundle bought from Marden's. My pattern inspiration came from Pinterest - annethelibrarian, via Flickr, made a monkey baby quilt and it's very popular on Pinterest. I just loved how simple the pattern was and how big the blocks were to show off the prints. The blocks are 6" (finished) and it's 9x9, so a 54" square.

The backing is from Marden's - 108" wide fabric for $7.99/yd ! Wicked cheap. Also, the wool batting is from Marden's as well. Post and story about that to come. The lime green satin binding is from Wal-mart because I honestly didn't know where else to buy it. If you know, please tell me because if there's no reason to go there then we won't, right? I used 100% white cotton thread for all piecing and quilting, for the bobbin in the quilting I used a matching green 100% cotton thread, Coats n Clark brand. Fancier thread is on my wish list once I find a job. All of my fabric is prewashed because I'm allergic to taking risks.

I did venture into two avenue's of quilt making/crafting that were very successful in my opinion. First, I appliqued a tree. A description of how I did this is here.

Second, I printed on fabric and made a label!

Instructions on how to print on fabric are here and can also be found on my Pinterest. The border for my label, Love My Honey, is designed by Jenni Calo for Connecting Threads, and found here. One thing I learned was if you can't remember if you prewashed a fabric then you should probably wash it before hand just in case, and don't wash it after. I did this and the label is kinda slanted. Whatevs! Gives the quilt a little personality. My personality!

The instructions on how to attach a label are here. Here's a little tip that I learned the hard way: use the interfacing that doesn't have a thin layer of paper on the back. Because it's difficult to remove using this method and you have to remove it or your quilt will be crunchy! This is why the corners of the label and applique block are really round.

All in all, I learned a boatload making this quilt. It was fun and exhausting. One thing I wish I knew how to do was align the blocks up before stitching. Right now, I line them up and stitch about an inch over the seams, cut the thread, open it up to see if they're lined up okay, and then move on to the next one if so. After I do all of the block alignments I stitch the whole row together. Any suggestions?

-Beatrice