Third Baby Quilt Done, Another One Started

Anyone who says that quilting the quilt takes forever, you need to believe them.  I think that is why quilters have more quilt tops and ufo's because of the all too common "quilt as desired" found at the end of all quilt patterns.   And most quilters (including myself), do not have a longarm.  My husband is kind enough to offer to purchase one for me, but I think these machines and frames are way overpriced, and they require at least a whole room of at least 10' by 14'.  Now, many quilters send their finished tops of to a person with a longarm machine, and does it for a fee (not a small one either!).  So, because I choose not to have a longarm, or send my quilt tops to a professional longarmer, I spend the "forever" time to quilt my own on my regular machine.  It is somewhat easier to do the baby quilts as they are smaller in size.

Here is the baby quilt I blogged about a couple of days ago when I only had the top done.  The fabric line is called "Simple Nature" by Wilmington Prints.  This is the finished view: 

I mentioned that I was going to use a small checked flannel backing.

Every time I finish a quilt top and go on to the quilting, I look at it as a blank slate.  I am not one to do meandering all the time, sometimes I use straight stitching.  This time, I decided to do a combination of both meandering and straight stitching.  I started with meandering the center piece, then I did straight line stitching next, then meandering again, and then finally some more straight stitching out to the edge. I really like the way it turned out!

Oh, and this is always my favorite part!  The binding!  I think the binding makes the quilt, it finishes the quilt, thus making it a tangible quilt ready for use.  My favorite print for bindings is a striped print cut on the bias.  This fabric line fortunately had a stripe and it looks wonderful!

And it is always nice that the quilt is comes out square, after all that is the goal.

Now, on to the next one, the pink one of the same fabric line.  I was able to get the top done today. it sandwiched and pinned, ready for the quilting.  (I also made another "Newton" quilt top (see picture and post here) and it is ready to be quilted too)

I feel very lucky today too, as I found a pink flannel backing with brown, white, and darker pink dots.  It is almost a perfect match.  It is as though this flannel was made for this line.