New baby = new quilt.

(Again, Libby, if you are reading this, stop! Go cuddle Zander......)











So last week I was the luckiest duck. I got to help my friend Libby give birth to her second baby. I didn't have to do much, just pass the Lucozade really, as Edward had it all under control and Libby was an amazon woman with all bases covered. Watching the slippery entrance of a baby into this world is always so incredibly awe-inspiring. No words can describe it really. So I'll not try.

I started on my first ever quilt in honour of baby Alexander a while ago but other things got in the way, so I worked on it feverishly yesterday in the hope of unveiling it at afternoon tea with our friends, but some mishaps with invisible thread and mitred corners completely thwarted me, and the sensible side of me (there is one sometimes) said it was just dumb to try to learn new things 5 minutes before you need to do them perfectly. I had some more peaceful time today and finished it off. Along the way I was lucky to have some help from some very special quilting queens (Andi, Bianca), but I think they may quietly tsk tsk at my cutting corners and haphazardness. You know what though? I love it. In that hard-to-give-it-up way.

Bright hey? When I went to the local quilting shop to get some embroidery thread and proudly showed the shop owner she said (barely disguising her wrinkled nose of distate) "ooh, its very ... modern (said in the same tone you might say something like, um, "faeces-like").

Here's the back:

It is a white linen base, with circles on one side, 3 of which are embellished with hand stitching. The back has a strip of fabric patchwork near the bottom. It is quilted with straight lines pretty eyeballed far apart (technical hey?), and bound with blue and white striped binding. The batting is bamboo. And the thing is I actually think I love making quilts! It all makes sense to me now! As long as i can do it my own way and not have to follow someone else's style or pattern, I reckon I may even make another!

(Yes that is unclipped threads hanging off it! Details!)

Can I stop taking photos of this quilt? I cannot. Here is one of those bundly photos, which I now understand the attraction of.

Ok. That'll do. Wonky stitching and all. Happy Birth-Day Alexander. This'll be yours to snuggle under for many years to come.