I don't think I'll ever be a quilter, but...

I wont say I hugely enjoyed the process of making this quilt. I cant imagine making them on a regular basis. 

I managed so sew some of the blocks the wrong way round, which threw the balance out a little. And it probably could have done with some plain fabric to tone it down a little. And the two afternoons I spent hand sewing the binding with a sore finger because I apparently somehow don't own a thimble of any description? Don't ask.

But I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, especially for a first try. 

I have no idea what the pattern would be called. I just knew that I didn't want plain squares but I also didn't want anything too complicated so I fudged my own pattern after some googling.  The quilt is roughly 90 x 120 cm which will be perfect for a play mat and sofa snuggling. 

I had a pretty hard time attempting to baste it. I used warm and natural batting inside, which handled pretty well and was eventually easy to quilt. But the basting felt like it took forever and despite using tape and the spray and some pins I never quite got it to sit right. Its worse on the back than the front though, so its not the end of the world. 

The actual quilting wasn't too bad. Free motion quilting was asking a bit too much, so I stuck to outlining each shape, and adding an extra square inside the larger shapes too make sure the batting was sufficiently held down.

I followed one of the myriad of internet tutorials for the binding and ended up with some OK mitred corners and a join that is solid yet not obvious. As much as I didn't much enjoy the hand sewing (seriously, how do I not yet own a thimble?!) I do like the clean look. I would never have managed to keep my machine stitching neat enough to be happy with it.

Now we just need the baby to go with it! 

Hopefully he knows its in his best interests not to be born over Christmas
(but doesn't hang around too long after!)