Two down!

This small quilt follows the exact same pattern as this one. The squares begin as 5" and include quite a few Freshcut fabrics by Heather Bailey, some Amy Butler prints, some of the Chez Moi prints, and a few others blended in. Lots of pinks, greens, and browns. The cream fabric is simple unbleached muslin.

Making the top was nice and easy. I could even say that playing with such pretty fabrics was relaxing. It really was.

Quilting it was not. I had thought, initially, that I could do each of the nine-square sections with free-motion quilting. Small areas ... wouldn't be too hard, right? Tried that ... ripped it all out. Then I thought I'd do each of the nine squares around the outside and in the center with free-motion quilting. Even smaller areas, wouldn't be hard at all, right? Tried that, ripped it all out. By this point I was near tears and telling Jason that I couldn't believe no one ever bothered to tell me I couldn't sew worth a crap ... I mean really, why did I have to be the last to find out?

I finally opted to go with something much more familiar and stitched 1/4" from the ditch in all the nine-section squares and the nine outside patterned squares, using a pretty green thread. The cream sections are stitched with a decorative stitch down the center that also is sewn through the outside squares. The inner cream sections also have some straight stitching through them, all done with a cream thread. Much, much better result than the free motion-stitching, and I'd even stopped swearing by the time I finished.

The backside is two pieces of Freshcut fabrics stitched together.

The binding is a coordinating pink on pink. I was asked how I do the binding. I just follow this tutorial. It does require hand-stitching the binding, but that's one of my favorite parts of making a quilt and can be done almost anywhere ... the park, a regatta, waiting forever at the doctor's office.

The quilt measures about 40" by 40". The colors are dreamy to me ... I want to curl up and take a nap when I see it (well, I usually want to do that anyway, but even more so when I see the quilt).

This little one is Etsy bound within the next few days and would love to find a good home. In fact, I've got quite a few little quilts listed on Etsy that need good, new homes (less than subtle hint).