First quilt!

I've made a few baby blankets and yarn-tied quilts before, but this is my first attempt at machine quilting and binding. I was in Gracie Lous one day and decided to try making this quilt for our baby boy. I had heard it was an easy pattern and I figured it would give me a good, slow project to work on this summer. While the boss was cutting my fabric, she said that the store would pay for the fabric if I would let them put it on display until the baby is born. Can't argue with that one! :) The only trick was that she likes to get the projects back quickly, so I had to get it done faster than I was planning. I was very nervous about committing my first quilt to being a store display, but I'm really happy with how it turned out and the ladies at Gracie Lous even liked it. It was my first time using spray basting--love it. First time using a water-soluble marking pen--love it. First time attempting machine quilting--not as hard as I thought it would be. I just had to baste the front and back pieces to the batting and then pin the strips and rick rack on where I had drawn the lines. Then I sewed straight lines VERY carefully so as not to get any bunches. For the rick rack I used a cute curvy stitch. I was very nervous for the binding part, but I read a few tutorials, and it wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it would be. I machine sewed it on the front, and then did the hand binding on the back. I took it with me to do the hand binding part on our trip to Oregon this last weekend, and it made the long trip pass much more quickly. The final test was to see if it would hold up in the washer and dryer--to give it the homey quilted look and to make the strip edges fray. Hooray--it survived, binding and all! :) It's now hanging at Gracie Lous, and I'm planning to make a crib skirt and some other accessories with matching fabric. I'm getting more and more excited for this baby boy to come!

Here is a top I made for the shop--it actually matches the embellished jeans I did earlier. It's a Pink Fig pattern called the Mia Top. It actually fits Abby almost to her knees, but it's pretty cute--and I'm excited to see it with the jeans. I've gotten very frustrated trying to do shirring (the smocking on the top of the shirt) before, because my machine was just pulling the elastic thread so tight that it wouldn't shir right. But a lady at the Bernina store told me to try turning the screw on my bobbin case about a half a turn to see if that would help. Miraculously, that's all it took, and the shirring was SO easy this time!