It's a Jungle out There: Part II

Two weeks ago, I left you with the finished top for the quilt I am making for my upcoming nephew, made in Patty Reed's Jungle Babies.  Last week, instead of finishing it, as I should have, I just cut out the binding.  I put in a long day in the sewing room yesterday and finally finished it. I am a big believer in doing things my own way.  When I first started quilting (receiving no formal instructions), it never occurred to me to use a plain colored fabric for the quilt backing or binding.  It just seemed to me that you chose a fabric that matched the front.  I also never thought to use invisible thread (or plain white) - I thought you'd use a thread that compliments that fabric.  What can I say; I don't think like a normal person.  Thus, I used the Jungle Babies Patch fabric for the back, another for the binding, with green and brown thread for the quilting. One thing I always do with my quilts is use cotton batting. While polyester has the benefit of not shrinking, the cotton will shrink with the fabric. I also prefer natural fibers; both because they're easier on the skin (IMHO), but trimmed batting can go int the compost (where all my natural fabric scraps go). Has anyone ever tried bamboo batting? Lydia update: she now weighs 4.5 lbs (slightly more than 2 kg), doubling the weight she was when we got her nearly two months ago.

All of quilts go through a rigorous cat-approval process.

It's a Jungle out There: Part I

This post is neither spooky nor nerdy.  You have been warned.

I have a very large family; counting the steps and halves, there are eleven children.  Throw in my cousins and friends, and it seems like I'm making a baby quilt every few months.  This one is for one of my step-brothers, who is expecting (along with his fiancée, of course) a boy next month.

And it seems like they're usually quilts featuring baby jungle animals; this is the fifth I've made in four years.  I'm not sure why this theme is so popular, but it's okay - it means there are a lot of different fabrics to chose from.  I chose Patty Reed's Jungle Babies for this go.  It's available from a number of different retailers, including fabric.com and JoAnn's.

I have a love-hate relationship with quilting. While I do enjoy the designing and piecing, I don't particularly care for the actual quilting.  I don't do elaborate designs, because I get frustrated by them, and I don't do large quilts, because I get bored before I'm done.  Therefore, a patchwork baby quilt just right for a weekend project. I was planning on finishing the whole thing this weekend, but it was ridiculously hot here.  Quilting in the heat is not fun.  Even just piecing the top today (which was about ten degrees cooler than yesterday) was unpleasant.  I will finish this off sometime this week, hopefully. This is my first experience with a quilting panel (the large piece in the middle).  I have never run across one that I particularly cared for, but as I said, this is the fifth baby animals quilt, so I wanted to introduce some variety.  It took some meddling to get everything to align correctly with the panel, but it wasn't too bad.

My apologies for the weird angle of the picture; I had to place it on the living room floor and photograph it from stairs.