before noon

I got up this morning with a half-planned idea in my head to quilt the cow baby quilt.  My sister-in-law is due (by c-section) late this month, but I was procrastinating.  I never really did set the plan fully in my head, just started working.

I doodled with my finger to get some ideas how I wanted to quilt various sections and then just dug in.  My machine was being a bit tempermental when I was making clockwise spirals somewhere around 7 and 9, but otherwise, not much trouble.  Yay!

I like how it turned out, even if my stitching in the ditch on either side of those yellow borders didn't go so well all the way across...

Here's a close-up of some of the quilting (please don't judge too harshly!):

I love the wave-looking swirls in the borders.  This was good practice for that.  And I wanted to outline the appliques, but decided go to with a meander instead.  Less need for clinging to the longarm handles for dear life with that choice!  The big spirals are in the pinwheel blocks and aren't great, but they'll hold the quilt together in the event the new baby decides to drag this around with him.

Binding is next.  I think I made it yellow...  And then a label, of course.  Maybe I can get the baby's name out of my sis-in-law before he's born this time?!

And now let me share you the story of Prince and the Pea:

There is a kitty named Tucker who lives in a land with four seasons.  But he doesn't mind because he is a well-loved indoor kitty.  He started out life somewhere unknown, but lived a short time in a shelter.  A nice man came one day and adopted him (and another kitty) and took him to a place where something called a "quilter" lived.  Little did he know that meant he'd have piles of soft things to lie on, but it did.  He is living happily ever after and when his lady-human decided she wants a turn with the "cat hammock" (known to humans as a longarm sewing machine), he is allowed to lounge and supervise on the pile of unfinished quilts.

Happy quilting,

Katie