Baby Quilt "Preview"

So, yesterday I was feeling motivated and it was my "Sunday," so I had time to actually do things. I had gotten all of my weekly chores done the day before, so I had time to do what I wanted to do yesterday! How exciting! Unfortunately, I quickly realized my first idea wasn't going to work. 

Initially, I was going to finally get to sewing Jeanna's pillowcases. But, I realized I hadn't even washed the fabric yet. So, I was looking through my projects and decided to get started on Kathi's baby quilt! For the record, I did get the fabric for the pillowcases washed yesterday and plan on working on them tomorrow (don't have time today for sewing since I am going into work early). 

We (my mom and I) already had the front cut out and ironed since we did that when we cut Bree's baby quilt. That made my life a lot easier yesterday. I did get more done than expected in one day as a result. The assembly process started very similarly, although the end product is much different.

First, I lined up all the blocks so that no two pieces of the same fabric were touching. Keep in mind, they are all squares it is just that my table is not big enough to lay it all out and when I lay anything down on the floor the pets seem to think I am making a bed for them. 

The second step was sewing them all together, then adding the border. I love these fabrics! It is looking so pretty! Normally for babies I would do a more gender neutral (like the baby animals of Bree's quilt), but Kathi already has two boys and this is her first girl. So, she needs some girly stuff in her house (obviously). My mom picked out the fabrics and the combination, although I narrowed down the choices a little. So, I can't take all the credit. Or even most of it. Hehe.

Then, I CHOPPED IT ALL UP!!!! You're thinking NOOOOOOO, right? Well, how else am I going to make it more interesting? My mom gave me this really cool tool called a Twister and at first it was a little intimidating and I was soooo worried I was going to screw this all up at this point because A. she wasn't here to help me out and B. I had never used this contraption before. It turns out that it is super easy to use, I didn't even manage to mess this up and it actually helped me hide a 'mistake' from lining up the blocks initially. My mom originally got the twister from my grandma, and then she bought it in more sizes. After using this thing only once I am planning on getting it in more sizes as well. The one I have only works on fairly large blocks. You can find the info on the Twister here and also buy it there. If you are a quilter, whether novice or expert, these things make pinwheels SO easy. How easy? Just look what I did: 

I hope Kathi is happy with how it is looking so far! I need to go to a fabric store this weekend to pick out a binding and backing fabric, I already have the batting at least. I'll post again when I have the quilt 'sandwich' put together and when I begin quilting it. Hopefully I'll finish this one a little faster than Bree's since I have a tiny bit more experience/sorta know what I am doing at this point. This quilt, as a result of the pinwheel cutting, is a bit smaller than Bree's quilt was. But, it is a little more detailed and they are both baby quilts so the size doesn't really matter much. Tomorrow I plan on working on Jeanna's pillowcases. She provided the fabric, and I am attempting a new pattern. Hopefully I don't mess it up, then I'd have to find more fabric....