December Baby Quilt

Seeing that this whole hand-making thing is new to me, I am now finding out just how good-planning is necessary for a predominately handmade Christmas.  There are 6 and a bit weeks to Christmas and I have not made any decorations.

I have made one gift. . . with another 4 to go.  That does not include my yearly batching of lemon butter and my hopefully new tradition of shortbreads.  Then packaging them and the trimmings.  I. should. have. planned.  Oh well.

Another slightly annoying thing is I can't show you what I am making as to not spoil the surprise.

But I can show you this little quilt, now that it has been gifted.

I made it for a friend from church who is expecting her second baby early December.  She has opted not to find out the gender which I think is great from my perspective.  Making something for a girl immediately has my brain heading for pink and blue for a boy and I mayn't have ventured into this happy bright combo!

I chose bright colours that I think can go for either type of baby and besides, I made it for what I think my friend would like, not her offspring.

I used some fat quarters from my local quilting shop, leftovers from another quilt and a vintage sheet from my ever increasing stash.  There are 6 x 7, 6" squares and quilting along either side of seams.  Basic.  But I am loving basic as this type of quilting helps me improve my accuracy without getting overwhelmed by bigger challenges.  I will get there one day.  I forgot to measure the quilt but I think that would make it 33" x 38.5".

This is my fifth quilt in little over a year and I am quite pleased with my progression on the binding with particular effort put into the mitres using this tutorial.  Still a ways to go but happy nonetheless.

I'm always at a loss when it comes to wrapping.  So being inspired by all the bloggy, instagrammy, internetpurchasey pictures I see out there everyday, I did my own take on the brown paper, string and doily thing.  The blue part of the gift-tag is one of Dean's paintings that I paper-chain-style cut.  Then I did the same with plain paper in order to have a clear backing for my uninspired message!

Do you get more creative by being creative?  I hope so.  I hope also to get a bit quicker and more enthused.  Perhaps it is just the silly-season pressure.  On a brighter note, I have finished all my christmas shopping already unless of course, I miss my hand-making deadline!!

How is your Christmas planning tracking?  Got any tips?

xx

BTW I'm jumping in here for the first time in aaaaaaaages! Hi creative spacers!! xx  And sorry for the doubling-up in your google reader as I forgot to add the link before publishing.