jenna's second baby quilt

The baby quilt has been given, her due date was yesterday, so it's safe to share!  (Not that you haven't been here all along, but a wrap-up is in order.)

A few months back, I was told that my hubby's cousin's daughter was expecting her second child.  She got this quilt for the first baby - a boy.  We didn't really expect her to be pregnant again so soon, but everyone has their own agenda for these things.  (And sometimes mother nature has alternate plans.)

I went through a few ideas before settling on the Baby Chick Quilt (scroll waaaay down for her version) for the new little girl-to-be.  I raided my stash of pinks (there was more there than I thought - hooray!) and only had to purchase some to complete the border and, of course, the back.

I got busy sewing right away - new projects are always awesome!

This was before I started the new job where I have a lot more hours and am much more tired when I get home because the shifts are also longer.

I got a lot done, but eventually the little chicks needed legs and I stalled out there for a bit...

Lily convinced me to sit down and get them done one day - still before the new job - and they went pretty fast.  She was even a good girl and only tried to chew the embroidery floss a few times.

The layout came next...

The layout looks more done here than it actually is.  The block corners all get "snowballed" and that took a bit of effort to get pinks placed so that I didn't have the same fabrics touching each other when the sashing pieces were considered.

Eventually I got it done and got the border on as well.

The original had a wider, scrappier border, but I didn't want to buy multiple pieces of pinks just to get that done and I think this looks just fine.  Maybe better.

Getting it onto the longarm took another bout of procrastination, but by now I was at the new job and one day quilted all three quilts that I'll be giving away this month in a fury of quilting.

I usually load rectangular quilts sideways, as it makes for fewer passes, albeit longer.  Longer is easier than more to me.  I thought this quilt was square.  I'm not sure why.  It's not.  So I did more passes instead.  Not a big deal.  This quilt isn't that large, so it didn't take very long.  And I quilted swirls, which though they take a lot of thread, go quite quickly.

Then it was time to bind.

Since the weather has turned cold (it IS winter), I was curled up under a quilt while binding the baby quilt.  Salem came to help.  And with that adorable face, who can tell you she isn't perfect?  (She didn't even try to chew thread once!)

I put in some earbuds and turned on a favorite podcast and listened to a few episodes (catching up after all this extra hours at the new job thing, you know) and had it done in no time.

Make and attach a label and it's done!

It looks a little more orange here maybe?  It was later at night and getting colors right indoors in the poor lighting isn't easy.

The hubby took it to her mom (his cousin) the following day and she was at the house, so she got it directly.  (Mom/cousin said she would get it to her for me, but this was better.)

She loved it!  (Of course she did.  Who wouldn't?!)

I've been working on getting the other two quilts bound.  Ho Ho Ho came first...

Oh, wait.  That's Lily helping.  She was also a goodest girl, snuggling in the warm, not-being-bound-but-keeping-me-warm quilt and not trying to eat the thread.  This time.

Another round of podcasts and kitty snuggles and this quilt is bound.  It still needs a label, but I've got a little time yet and some other projects needed to be done first.  Some more secret projects.

The third quilt, by far the smallest, is still waiting for its day of binding, but I'll get there.  It won't take long.  (Famous last words...)

No new book finishes this week.  The current one is quite slow paced, though interesting.  But I'm at a point where I'm like COME ON!!!  Just tell us what happens!  I hope to maybe finish it today, but we have an extended family Christmas celebration this afternoon, so we'll see how much time I end up with.

Happy quilting!

Katie