Erin's Quilt Done

Before we left for our Easter weekend out of town, I finished the baby quilt I stared last week. I used a different kind of backing than usual. I think it was called "Minkee". It has a great, soft, knap, kinda like velour. When I bought it, I specifically asked how well it quilted and how it was to work with. I was told that it was fine, and maybe a little stretchy. Well, let me tell you, I won't buy it again. Fortunately I tried to do free hand quilting on a test piece. It would not move at all on my machine. I really had to pull to get it to do anything and I wasn't ready to go through all that. So I decided to put on my walking foot and just stitch in the ditch. That went very well. No puckers, no folds. But then I decided just to pull the back up over the front and stitch it down for a binding. Well, this stuff pulled and wouldn't lay straight and twisted. Uhggg! I guess I'll just stick with cotton from now on. :)

Erin's Baby Quilt Top Done

I've been working on this baby quilt for the last couple of nights and this is what I've gotten done so far. I'm going to put a lavender border on it that matches the backing. I'll add the border before Sunday so I can lay it out for pin/basting at church after services.

I've just racked my brains trying to figure out where/how to hang my quilts so I can take good pictures of them to show you. I can't think of a single place in my house that has an entire wall that furniture isn't in front of. In past pictures, I've mostly just laid them out on the floor or on the bed, but I think that you can see so much more when they are hanging up (plus, there's not a lot of floor space and even then I'd have to vacuum up all the dog hair before I took any pictures). In the above picture, I have my DD holding it up. But she's not very big and even this baby blanket is bigger than her arms will reach. Oh well. Maybe its just another excuse for me to somehow get a sewing studio. Of course, that would mean adding on to the house...(vbg).

I'm already eying my next project. I bought a pattern and fabric for a really cool craft tote so I can carry around my quilting stuff. Fabric pictures to follow.

Erin's Baby Quilt

Well, I started cutting out the fabric for the new baby quilt I'm making. Here's the fabric.

I didn't spend very much time over the weekend quilting. On Saturday I did hand sew on the binding onto my FL Shell Quilt (see previous post), but after that DD got up and we ran a bunch of errands and then I took her to go see Race to Witch Mountain at the movie theater. It was pretty good and I'm glad we went. We came home long enough for her to change clothes before I took her to a 3 hour shut in at the YMCA. She was pretty phyched to go and I know she had fun, but they discontinued a bunch of stuff that she was looking forward to.

And then it started to snow. And snow. And snow. It looked like alot as I was driving back from the Y, and I know that south of here got alot more, but when I went out to snow blow Sunday morning, there was only about an inch and a half. I started up the snow blower, but the snow was too heavy and wet and wouldn't "blow" anywhere. So I put the blower back in the garage and got out the shovel and had it done in about 20 minutes. Because there wasn't very much, it wasn't too heavy to lift, so it wasn't too bad.

After cleaning out the driveway, DD and I drove to IL to see my dad, who just got back from FL. We hung out with him for a little, then the three of us drove over to see my new niece, born about 4 weeks ago. I got to hold her for the longest time and even got to feed her! Such a sweet sweet baby. We all went out for dinner at Chili's and then took Dad back home and then DD and I drove back to Port Washington. It was a long day.