Baby Things for Dominic

The baby shower for Dominic was on Saturday and I was naturally cramming to finish his gifts. I had to finish a quilt, a small receiving blanket type quilt, and some bibs and burp cloths. Most of this stuff I did on Friday night after work. I picked up a triple shot white mocha on the way home and planned for a long night. Just how long it was going to be was unexpected.

The bib on the left side of the photo didn't turn out after it went through the wash. I guess I didn't get the binding on just right and some of it came unraveled from the fabric. It was my favorite one too. =(

Dominic's mom likes the "bean" shaped burp cloths so I drew up a shape and made some. The one in the middle has brown binding, and the one in the back is one that didn't fare well after the wash. *sigh* Nevertheless, I enjoyed playing with the burp cloths in the middle of the night in front of my bathroom mirror as they resembled the eye covers you wear when trying to sleep. Had I lost my mind? Yes, yes, I think I had.

Onto the quilt. I want to first say that I love this quilt. I'm really proud of it and it was a little weird when it came time to let it go. After all, I have been working (and not-working) on this thing for seven months. I finished the top in a couple of weekends in November and then the top sat until February because I was scared to quilt it. I finally quilted it by machine and then it sat for about another month before I got serious to finish it. I was hesitant to because of the furry fleece, but fear doesn't get you anywhere.

Cutting the furry fleece is like exploding a feather pillow and watching the feathers float around the room. I joked that the stuff was in my mouth, my nose, and in my eyes (but it really was!). Forging on, I tied the fleece on with embroidery floss, basted the edges and then attacked the binding. I started with a double fold binding (premade) but failed to make sure it was wide enough. It wasn't. I attached the thing to the front but it wouldn't fold over all the layers to cover the raw edges on the back. It was if the quilt was saying to me, "I wont go down so easily! Muahaha!" So I sat for about an hour and a half ripping it off. I tried to preserve it but ended up cutting it with my seam ripper (argh!). "You lose!" taunted the quilt as I stabbed myself in the finger with my seam ripper. With the black binding not usable anymore it left me with Brick Red binding and I wasn't happy about it - I had envisioned black and that was all I could see finishing this quilt. But I was pleasantly surprised with the red and it didn't even look that bad on the back. I suppose I could have made my own with the Kona black fabric I have... but I just didn't need one more thing to add to my to-do list.

At 4:30 am I was finished with almost everything. I had bibs, burp cloths, the quilt kit I bought from Joanns (I didn't take a picture!) and 98% of the quilt finished. I still needed to attach the binding to the back of the quilt and wash everything since Terra is allergic to cats. The picture will explain...

A 5am, after trying to hand stitch the binding on the back I decided that it just wasn't going to be strong enough and did it by machine with transparent thread. You can see it on the front of the quilt, but that was the price I was willing to pay to: 1. Make sure it was attached really well and 2. Get it finished!

The birds were beginning their morning songs as I threaded my machine for the 100th time. I thought to myself, "7 months Lisa?! How could you let this take 7 months?!" What can I say, working on a deadline is when I am the most productive.

At 6am it was finished. I took my pictures and was ready to crawl into bed. Wait a second, I've been enjoying looking at this thing for so long I was going to take a few minutes to sit and spend some time with it. It balked at me for all the work it made me go through and then I had a talk with it about being a good quilt to Dominic. Finally we said goodbye to each other and with that I went to sleep.

Saturday morning I woke up and took everything to the laundromat (my washing machine broke on me through this whole ordeal). After the wash I realized the mishap with the bibs and burpcloths so while everything was drying I made a couple more bibs out of some white and blue surfing flannel. I should have used this easier pattern all along since they whipped up in no time (I didn't get a picture of those either). Finally everything was finished and we rushed to get this thing wrapped (in the Walgreen's parking lot) and off to the shower we went.

In the end watching Terra, my best friend of 16 years, finally see in person her's and Dominic's gifts made all the work worth it. Her husband looked at the back of the quilt and jokingly said, "We didn't order shag!" "It looks like hair," some people said. "It's sooo soft," commented others. Whether other people liked it or not was not my concern. I wanted her to like it - and she did. While the other gifts got put away, Terra held onto the quilt until the shower was over.

I forgot my camera so I didn't get a picture of her with it but once the baby comes I'll post a picture with them together. :)