Georgia's Quilt, Finished!

Guess what's done?

Boom! You'll recall the post I made a few months back about my determination to finish Georgia's baby quilt by her 2nd birthday (March 20). I'm proud to say, despite my tardy blogging of the event, it did happen, and with time to spare. I was laying here snuggling in it on the couch just now and realized I never shared it, so here are my beautiful cell phone photos of the masterpiece. I'm proud to say that this is my first "real" and "big" quilt I've finished! I've pieced real quilts, but small ones; and I've made big quilts, but just big patchwork squares - nothing cut and pieced from a designed pattern. I'm so proud.

It's not going to win any awards, but I am so pleased that I was able to piece and free motion quilt the whole thing by myself. My mom, quilter extraordinaire (she says no, but I disagree) helped me through the bits that were holding me back - applying the borders and sandwiching the batting & backing to the front - but I did the rest.

I will say this - it's going to be a long time before I attempt machine stitching down the binding again. I tried it down 1.5 sides of this piece before deciding how much I hated it - it looked awful. Maybe I just need more practice, but I also really enjoyed sitting under the weight of the quilt for awhile while I mindlessly handstitched the back down. I'm so glad I ripped out the machine work.

It's been in heavy rotation with the kids, and already been through the wash a few times (suffice it to say, not only do we allow eating in the living room, but we've been through our share of sicknesses the last few months). It's held up beautifully so far. I hope it gets super soft over the years, washed and tumbled over and over again, and that Georgia takes it with her to college, like I did with my favorite quilts - they were one of my biggest comforts away from home.

Next up? I have a little blue lap quilt ready to piece from blocks into rows, and then I intend to make a really large, king size (or bigger, because we cannot share) quilt for our master bedroom. So naturally, based on the timetable I set with Georgia's quilt, it will be about um....6 years before those are complete. I'll keep you posted.