FO: Robot Cheater Quilt
Ta-da! My first ever finished quilt! I'm pretty damn proud of this thing, let me tell you.
Because the design of this little baby quilt is the cheater panel that I designed on Spoonflower, the whole thing came together in under 10 hours from start to finish . . . and that's including hand-sewing the binding. Not bad at all for a baby present, and you just know that if this weren't my first quilt it would have gone even faster.
Wouldn't this be adorable gifted along with a Trinket knit in coordinating colors? I think I may have found my go-to baby present . . .
I'm sure you're wondering what the back looks like:
The back is almost a baby quilt itself! I sewed together the samples of the coordinating prints and then added the solid mint around to make it big enough.
In terms of actually quilting, I feel like this project almost doesn't count because the quilting itself was very color-by-number since all I did was sew around the design of the panel. You can see the quilting lines better in this picture:
(you can also see errant hairs in this picture . . . that's a fact of life in my house!)
As you can see, the "quilting" was super simple on this one.
I did use a walking foot for the first time (and learned that there is such a thing! and ordered one for my little Kenmore) and learned how to do the basting step, so I do feel like I learned a lot, but not really a lot about actually quilting if you know what I mean.
My binding is definitely not perfect. Some areas are thicker or thinner than others, and you can see the hand-stitching in places, but I know that no one would notice if I didn't point it out, so it's definitely good enough. Even though I hate the term "good enough" sometimes you have to go with that when it comes to crafting, otherwise you'd never ever finish anything!
I learned some things doing my first binding:
- Hand-sewing the back is kind of fun! It's zen-like in the way that knitting stockinette is. I sat on the couch, put on the DVR, and covered Arnold with the quilt while I did the hand-sewing. I had been dreading it but it was actually very pleasant!
- I suck at sewing binding strips together perfectly. No matter how many times I tried, the strips never lined up exactly right. In the end I just went with it, and discovered that it doesn't really matter. The uneven edges get eaten up by folding the binding over to the other side of the quilt. Next time I won't waste so much time trying to do it "perfect".
My next quilt will have "real quilting" on it . . . and yes, I've already started it. And yes, that means it's not the original gray-and-pink quilt either, it's yet another one! Last night I stayed up late piecing the squares and laying them out on my design wall, and this morning I started putting the squares together . . . here's a sneak peek:
I'm pretty much in love with it. I should be knitting but all I want to do is quilt!
