Spring to Finish :: Update

I don't know how, but I managed to get a few things done over the past couple of days. The reason I don't know how it happened is because things have been weirdly busy around here - in-laws over for a visit and dinner over the weekend, getting the garden all planted, taking my sweetpea to get the staples taken out of her head - you know, the usual.

So, those up there are the two potholders I needed to finish - both in yummy Amy Butler fabric that I didn't have very much of but LOVE to look at. I'll probably end up using them more as hot pads because most of my potholders end up getting pretty gnarly after I've used them in my actual cooking adventures.

Even better: the I Spy quilt I'm making for Owen is amazingly close to being finished! All the quilting is done and the binding has been attached. Only the hand-sewing finishing of the binding is left to be done. YAY! Tried a couple of new things with this project. One was using nylon/transparent thread to do the grid quilting. I was having a heck of a time trying to decide what color thread to use with the variety of prints in the quilt and figured I'd give the transparent stuff a try.

After finishing the top I have to say I'm not really a fan. Well, I'm thrilled with how it looks because the stitching really is almost invisible and I think that's way better than how it would have looked if I'd had to choose a color and just run with it. But my machine was not so thrilled with it and I had a pretty steep learning curve in terms of tension and general handling of this type of thread. I won't say I'd NEVER use it again but I do prefer cotton thread.

Okay, I really struggled with how to quilt the red border. I knew it needed something but I wasn't really sure what. Originally, I was going to do a kind of wonky zigzag but I ended up doing this swirly free-motion design. It's a little rough because I'm still very VERY new at free-motion quilting, but overall I'm pretty happy with it. I think you can get away with a lot on a kiddo quilt. What I see as huge glaring mistakes actually kind of add to the charm of a children's quilt. Some places remind me of Owen's scribbles!

And I LOVE that red and yellow cherry print!