I was able to finish and hand deliver the quilt for Baby K&K who is due any day now! It was literally a pain to finish as the construction continues and you don't really realize how good you had it until all of your stuff is gone. Here was my set-up...
A dining room table chair (our only one left) and the low coffee table. I was basically bent in half quilting this thing. Not only that but I have to say it was the first quilt I haven't enjoyed quilting. I'm sure that's because I was on a time crunch and in a really not enjoyable position/spot. I hate our apartment right now and even being there is just draining me of energy. It's like living inside of an opaque plastic bag.
Regardless, I got it finished. I did a meandering stipple but with a loop thrown in. I love these baby quilts because they allow for me to try a huge number of quilting motifs in a small way. They are my guinea pigs and with a king size quilt in the works these smaller quilts are helping me define where to head with that one. I used the lightest purple thread I could find. I didn't want to use white due to the fact that there was so much negative space on the quilt. It needed some color.
You can also see that I had one happy kitten! She was obsessed with the quilting process this time around and wanted to be nowhere but on or near that quilt.
Once quilted I pulled out the binding I'd pre-prepped and added it to the mix.
You'll have to forgive the photography. In my genius I also packed our camera into storage, meaning I snapped all of these on my phone and it was really dark by time I put on the binding.
Once I finished quilting it and got the binding in place I laied it on the floor to have a look at the overall scheme. I hated it. Something just didn't feel right. Maybe it was the loops? Did I not space it all properly? Was it the solid purple binding? Yuck!
I folded it up and set it aside. Not much I could do about it now. I waited a day before tackling the binding to finish it. Neti only seems comfortable in the bedroom lately, where the least has changed due to construction. To help her stay calm and relaxed and for me to feel some distance from the creative-killer plastic barrier, I grabbed my scissors, thread, and finished quilt and headed to bed. Literally.
Neti and I curled up in bed, in the silence of a Friday afternoon, to hand sew the binding. It was wonderful!
We had a great afternoon together! Once finished, I labeled the quilt for Baby K&K with love and threw it in the wash. I did not take a look at it again in full, because I felt good having it finished and didn't want to ruin that peaceful serenity found spending some time in bed with the cat and a quilt. I dried it and folded it for a trip to Selah, WA.
Once there with K&K I could not have been happier with the result. They "ew'd" and "ah'd" over the finished quilt and once I laid it out and their cats swarmed (they have four) I felt really good about it. I think it has something to do with our apartment space right now. We are so closed off that it's just killing my creative spirit.
The trip to see K&K was amazingly refreshing though and inspired me to take our first weekend home in a month to spend an entire day on the couch knitting. Yes, I finished the baby sweater. Tonight it will be blocked, tomorrow buttons will be purchased and then it's off to Gaston, OR to give it to Baby Cousin who is recently back in the USA! Hurray!
I'm trying to keep my head up with all this construction. I'm debating between starting to knit a pair of socks I've had waiting in the wings or cutting all my fabric for the king size quilt. That way, when the construction is over all I have to do is start sewing. Maybe I'll do both. Although, I'll have to go digging in that storage unit again. Shucks.
Happy Crafting!
