Baby quilt finished

Here are some shots of the baby quilt in progress and the finished product. I really powered through this project. I was afraid of not getting it finished in time for the baby shower on Saturday so put the pedal to the metal.

I quilted around the little squares in the 9-patches--worked so long that my "pedal" leg got achy and twitchy. Thank goodness for TV--machine quilting is boring. Notice my little scissors. I really love these little scissors for clipping threads. They are fly-tying scissors called "Dr. Slicks". They have finely serrated edges that really grab little threads and a slightly curved blade making it less likely that you will nip into your quilt while trimming little threads. They are an excellent tool. (and quite pretty) They are made for men's hands, I think, and have nice big round loops for your fingers. I bought them in a fishing store.

Here I am sewing on the binding by machine. It is much faster than by hand and I think it is stronger for utility-type quilts. I use a narrow, long-ish zigzag and it hardly shows. Notice how artfully I have cropped these pictures so you can't see the surrounding mess that is my sewing space.

And here is the finished quilt. I have flipped back the corner so you can see the backing. You can't tell, but it has little, bitty Dutch boys and girls with bunnies and birds. Very '30s, and I think the baby will, at some point, probably like those little figures. One of the yellow fabrics on the top has equally bitty dogs chasing balls--little hidden surprises. That's for the baby. For the Mom I tried to coordinate the colors with the Pottery Barn linens and accessories she chose--I hope she didn't buy the Pottery Barn quilt.