A Quilt for the Button

 I am so excited!  I gave my new girl a bit of a run and feel confident to start working on some "orders" for friends and family.

I finished little Button's quilt!!

I think Button is excited too!

I have only made one other quilt for one of my children, and that one sits with her memory box.  

This quilt was therapuetic in many ways.

  I bought the "if its a girl" and "if its a boy" quilt kits from Joann's.  

I planned to do them BEFORE he arrived, but I think there was fear.  

Fear that if I made a quilt, I would be coming home empty armed again.  

So demons where vanquished as I worked on it. Cutting went smoothly.  Placing the squares?  Not so much.  Too many mishaps to explain the amount of times my flannel fell and squares fell on the floor.

  I was very anxious about deciding on my quilting plan.  I let the quilt hang out in the studio for a while. 

The usual struggle in my head occurred!  Should I free-motion?  Should I do even lines.  Should I cross even lines to make small squares.  Should I try to make hearts in each large square?

Then I started to doodle. 

Don't you just love post-its?

I decided that I would meander, but cross my lines.  And every so often I would add a heart. 

My heart!

  I emphasized a few of the larger hearts by mimicking the pebble quilting effect.

I will be honest....I let my stitch lengths go a little long.  I have to practice getting them a bit shorter.  My new machine was a bit quick for me!

But I don't think Button cares!

Or maybe he wonders about my ability to quilt?

 

Or is he more worried about my ability to bind it?

 

He should be.  

I usually hand stitch my bindings, but wanted to try to do it solely by machine.

 Ewww......YUCK!

 Major FAIL mom!

But I pulled it out in the end!  A little time and a seam ripper, and some handstitching. 

I was back in business!

Phew, Mom....That was a close one!

I'm so glad that I pushed through all the difficulties to finish it.
  It sure was worth it for this little guy!

Edited:  Took a few better pictures of the kit and doodle.  And somehow I was missing a picture of the hand stitched binding!