On the home stretch

As a part of the "One a Month" challenge, one of my aims is to get a few WISPS out of hiding, and get them finished. The first WISP I wanted to tackle was this bed quilt for Austin, that has been in the making for about 2 years. It was meant to be finished in time for his second birthday but I was overwhelmed with it's sheer size (a little bigger than a standard single bed quilt) and also since it was my second ever quilt, there are quite a few mistakes, and lot of learning in each of the blocks. Some of them are done the right way, but the rest are done incorrectly, part of the learning process, and none of the seams really line up. The first challenge was to get the top complete and that took me a while. Then, when I took it out again to see if I could finish it in time for Austy's new big boy bed when we turned his toddler bed back into a cot for Maddy, I was challenged by the quilting, as it's hard enough quilting a single bed quilt, let alone when you have a huge pregnant belly pushing you back from the machine and the heat and weight of the quilt was really getting to me as I tried to shove it through thhe machine for several rotations to quilt squares in all the blocks.

A very early WIP shot from when those strippy squares were bothering me

Emma saved the day by taking it on a little holiday and finishing the quilting for me, and I doubt I had done much more than a third of it myself so her quilting it was a ginormous help! Still, I didn't manage to finish it before Madelyn came along, as there were a gazillion ends to tie off and thread in, and I was busy with Madelyn's curtains and quilt at that point.

So my plan was to use it as my WISP for the February project, but I finished those thread ends this weekend, and amidst a feeding frenzy for Madelyn (another growth spurt? - surely not, she's hit the 00 clothing size already!!), I managed to get the binding stitched on, and started hand stitching it down. Austy was very happy to find the quilt all folded on the lounge chair yesterday once I'd threaded in that last end, and stayed under te quilt most of the day, despite the 30 degree celcius temperature (thank goodness we have good air conditioning here or else he would have overheated under that heavy wool batting).

Today the boys are at the cricket for the Australia day test match and I'm not sure how long my quiet time will last as it's set to be 35 degrees today, and Austy will most likely be ready to come home soon. I had planned to do some clothes sewing, or tackle the last round for the Emma's round robin quilt, but Austy's quilt has been calling me. When I stopped stitching for lunch I decided to lay it out on Austy's bed to check it out. You can see how it will look against the feature wall, matching cushion and bunting I made with the left over novelty prints. I'm so glad I made the bunting as some of my favourite fabrics are hidden since the quilt is so big and my hubby changed his mind and decided to make a normal single bed rather than a king single since Austin's bedroom is quite small. And you might recognise the curtains from a previous post too.

I only have half of the binding left to stitch down, so this one might just scrape it in for January after all. My husband has been joking with me for ages that Austin will get his quilt when he moves out of home. Looks like I can turn the tables now and nag him about making the trundle drawer to finish of the bed... that's just a plain mattress (still with plastic on it) you can see poking out from under the bed. The wood and handles have been purchased, but Andrew has a habit of starting a project, getting it mostly finished and useable, then moving onto something else. I think it will take Austin having a few sleep-overs when he's school aged to get Andrew back onto finishing the bed.

Got to go - the needle and thread calls!!!