A dear friend is pregnant and expecting a little boy, so I have whipped up the first baby quilt EVER that I am actually going to gift BEFORE the baby is born.
I had this darling paisly frog pattern, so I couldn't resist highlighting it in the quilt.
I also couldn't resist buying a little frog to go with it.
I am really, really pleased with my quilting on this one, it came out even and I think it does add quilt a bit to the overall look of the quilt.
I finished this quilt feeling like I was getting the hang of it and ready to try something bigger.
Up next was this Christmas quilt...I did many things wrong here. Many things.
1. I chose the wrong color thread. I used red because it seemed right, but looking at it now I can see that a softer color would have been better, perhaps a beige that wouldn't clash horribly with any of the colors in the quilt.
2. I chose the wrong pattern to quilt on. Spirals in the designs like this take too much away from the design of the quilt itself.
3. I centered the design incorrectly. I should have left the sashing unquilted instead of trying to include that in the main pattern, including it made all my circles off center because I couldn't judge where the center of each circle needed to be very accurately.
4. I quilted too close together. I think the color would have been okay if it weren't as dense. I quilted further apart on the border and I do like that better. Also it would have taken WAY less than the 8 or 10 hours than it took me if I had quilted less densely.
(this picture looked really weird, no matter which way I rotated it, apparently I held the camera in mid air at about 45 degrees)
There are a few other things too, but I'll spare you from the minutae.
I am not crazy, I know this quilt is FINE in reality, it is perfectly functional, no one will notice the fabric puckering on the back, no one else will look at it with such a critical eye as I do...but still.
Lessons learned, hopefully I'll have a shorter list with the next one!
In the Completely Unrelated news category, we saw the Philadelphia Orchestra perform Beethoven's 9th a few weeks ago. Absolutely AMAZING. We had great seats too...they were cheaper because of the positioning, you can't see the whole stage, but you could look right down on the orchestra! If you have a chance I heartily recommend seeing them, also they just had to declare bankruptcy, so they could use the support!
At the orchestra I knitted on the only little bit of knitting I have to show at the moment. This sock, which I ended up ripping out because my gauge had changed so much from the first one that it was striping differently and I couldn't have that!
I really am knitting sweaters and lace and other things...there's just nothing much to show, a slightly longer sweater front...a 4 inch piece of lace...
Lots to tell you, a book review, a recipe to share, but this post is long enough already, also, it's my birthday and I'm supposed to be getting ready to go out for dinner right now! :-)
Happy Birthday!
Also - I really like the frog baby quilt. Lovely colours and it looks so comfy...
Posted by: A-L | June 07, 2011 at 01:48 AM
Happy, Happy, Birthday! Try and make the celebration last for a whole week!!
Posted by: Susanne | June 07, 2011 at 09:21 AM
What a lucky baby and Happy Birthday!
Posted by: Connie | June 07, 2011 at 02:53 PM
Happy belated! I'm still way impressed with the quilting: I have difficulty following curves. Straight lines all the way, baby!
Posted by: trek | June 22, 2011 at 05:03 PM