A baby quilt from Aunt Katie...

My sister is expecting her first child come September, which means that this child will make me an aunt! Woohoo! Even before she became pregnant, I found myself thinking about the fact that I wanted to make each of my future nieces & nephews a baby quilt. I wanted each of these "Aunt Katie Quilts" to be unique in some ways, but similar in others. I think I've come up with a way to satisfy both requirements.

The strip quilt:

I think the strip quilt is the perfect simple baby quilt for me. It is quick and easy to cut and sew and it is the perfect way to display fun, colorful, and favorite fabrics. Making this quilt top took hardly any time at all and it is so cute. Denise chose the hullabaloo fabrics for her quilt, and I love it! Perfect for a boy or a girl, I think (because Denise & Andrew, like us, have chosen not to find out their baby's gender). I can't wait to make many more of these :)

*The strip quilt idea was brought to my attention by this post via the quilting blog, Film in the Fridge (I love this blog!)

My quilt...

I've finished the blocks for my quilt. I actually finished them about a month ago, but never posted, oh well. I'm taking a break from this project for awhile...I've got Henry's 1st birthday present to start on! I'll post pictures of that tomorrow, it's a fun one.

2 new quilts...

...from 2 very special ladies. This one is a Cindy W. special made in Olivia fabric. I absolutely LOVE it!

This next one is from Grandma Net. I used to go to her house when she was working on it and tell her how much I loved it & how I wanted my first quilt to be made out of those exact fabrics...I guess she heard me because now it is mine. LOVE IT!

Isn't this just the coolest quilt label ever? Maybe I'll make one like this on quilt #2.

My scraps...

...were turned into this little blanket. It's not one of my finest efforts. The front is a bit loose & crazy, but I'm going to leave it. This blanket is meant to be used & abused, so it might as well start off that way, right? Like my mom said...leave it alone, it may become one of the baby's favorites. We'll see. (It does have brown minkee dots on the back, so it does have that going for it :)

My quilt label...

...it's officially done. I couldn't be happier.

Just to clarify...I used the plural form of bee to ensure that this quilt is recognized as a gift to all of our children. Not just baby #1.

It's finished!

...I can hardly believe it. I'm a little sad it's done. It was fun working on this with my grandma. We made a good team I think. I made the mistakes, she ripped them out, I got stuck, she got me unstuck, you know, typical give & take teamwork kind of stuff ;) I guess I'll just have to start another quilt soon so I can work with her again. Hopefully next time there will be less mistakes on my part, but one can never be so sure about those kinds of things.

Somehow we were seriously short on the fabric for the binding, so we intermixed the gray dot fabric with the blue flower fabric and are pretty happy with our results.

I will put on my quilt label tomorrow.

Binding...

I worked on binding my quilt last night. It was actually one of the most enjoyable parts of the entire quilting process for me. I think I enjoy sewing by hand, very relaxing. John took lots of pictures of this process, so I included a few for evidence of my work...

I like this one...my hand being blurry makes it look like I am a quilt binding machine.

Watching some HGTV on Hulu while I work.

Pure concentration.

The quilt has been quilted...

...I must have acquired my ambition from my Grandma because she just doesn't quit. I arrived at her house at 10am, and she worked tirelessly with me until 5:00 (with only a very small ham sandwich lunch break in between). We put the quilt up on her quilt frame and then hand basted the entire thing to secure the 3 layers together. After we had it basted, we machine quilted it. We stitched in the ditch and got the entire thing done in a matter of hours. We couldn't believe it!

Grandma did alot more sewing than I did. We started out trading off after every few rows, but then grandma just kind of took over while I made a visit to cousin Julie's house. When I returned (less than an hour later) she was nearing stitch completion. We felt pretty proud of ourselves to say the least. I pulled all of the basting out last night, and next weekend I will go over and learn how to bind the quilt. Then it will be officially finished. This week I am going to ponder the design & wording of my quilt label, which I am really excited about. You actually have to finish a quilt in order to give it a label...now I'm in the quilt label club. Yeah for me :)

My first quilt...

I have officially started working on my first quilt. I spent a total of 4 hours at my Grandma Net's house and, dare I say, got quite a bit accomplished. It's turning out even better than I expected. Here's my progress so far...

The layout

The first 4 columns complete

The cutting table

Grandma's Bernina (I love this machine!)

Grandma's Iron (She bought one that doesn't have an automatic shut-off, which is really nice for sewing projects)

Grandma's Workstation

The first 6 columns

Up close

Up close #2

Up close #3

My view downwards...

I was telling my grandma how this belly just seemed to be getting in my way while I was trying to layout my pieces on the floor & manipulate 45 degree angles on my rulers. She wisely told me that the belly is less of a sewing distraction than a child will be come April. I think she might be right :)