Fastest Finish Ever

When the IG Quilt Fest prompted us to share a fast finish, I was reminded of a quilt I made before I started Snowy Days Quilting. A coworker was expecting a baby, and I had decided that I wanted to make her a baby quilt. I found out that she was expecting a girl exactly one week before the shower. 

Due to the time crunch on this quilt, I wasn't able to do my usual outdoor photo shoot. In fact, I had about 10 minutes to snap some quick pictures before I ran to work on the day of the baby shower. While the pictures are somewhat lacking, I hope you will agree that the quilt is still worth sharing.

All of the decisions on this quilt were made in the interest of time. I picked up two batik charm packs and turned them into a 39" square disappearing nine patch quilt. I really liked the combination of pinks and browns in the charm pack. It's a color combination I may have to play with again someday.

This was before I had my longarm, so I free motion quilted it on my trusty domestic sewing machine. I went with an all over meaner in a variegated pink thread. I rarely do a meander, but it was a good choice when I was in such a hurry!

It was already getting late on the night before the baby shower, so I knew I needed to do the binding by machine. I had never tried that before, and I thought a decorative stitch would add some interest while masking any newbie mistakes I made. I still really like the idea, but I found that my machine doesn't like to feed well for decorative stitches when there is the extra bulk of the binding on one side. Fortunately, this stitch was simple enough that I was able to make it work.

Once the binding was sewn, all that was left was the label. I wrote a brief message, stitched the long edge down by hand, and the quilt was finished! If I remember right, I finished sometime after 1:30 am on the day of the shower. I caught a few winks, then took the best pictures I could in the early morning light before work. I could hardly believe that I had managed to make a complete quilt in just a week.

I was relieved when the mother was thrilled. I hadn't known it, but she was a quilter, too! She appreciated the effort that goes into even a simple quilt like this, and she loved the decorative stitch on the binding.

Linking up with:
Let's Make Baby Quilts
Finish It Up Friday