look mom, i finished a quilt!

several weeks ago, i came down with the stomach flu. Ben stayed home and had to take care of the girls. He is a champ! but they are a full time job, so while he managed to run and grab me some 7-up and crackers, I was basically on my own for the whole puking and crawling back in bed thing.
I'm 27 and have birthed 2 children.
and do you know who I wanted when I was puking? my mom.
anybody else out there?

Something about your mom makes everything better.

and the other day when I finally finished my first quilt start to finish (i finished the quilt top last year but I didn't really have the space or energy to quilt it.)

Do you know who i wanted to show when I finished?

my mom. moms are the best.

but i'd like to share with you too :)
isn't it cheerful?

this is my favorite corner - it's a close up of the upper right corner above. what's your favorite part?

here's the back. i LOVE this gray. i originally had purchased a different fabric, but i decided it was too busy so I used it for other stuff. Up close this has a slightly woven look. It's Robert Kaufman "Quilter's Linen" in stone (I think. or maybe grey. I don't remember) This comes in navy and aqua too. I was think of using one of those colors for my next quilt. Only next time I'll get enough fabric so I don't have to piece together a strip to add to the back. It turned out cute but the quilting pattern on the front goes through the back strip in a funny way.

Oh well. It's still very cozy for reading. 

Here it is cheering up our beige beige beige living room :)

Details on Sources & Inspiration

I used this tutorial from Missouri Star Quilt Company to learn how to bind. They have GREAT tutorials.

My mom helped me baste it (the part where you pin all the layers together) & I safety pin basted it. With 2 hands it went pretty fast. Thanks ma!

This is the "pattern" / tutorial I used to make the blocks. It's the arkansas crossroad block.

This was my inspiration photo.

I stumbled on it by googling patchwork scrap quilt or something like that. It's from craftsy but isn't available on their site anymore. I wanted something that could be any size and still look good & use only scraps. (I didn't buy the fabric on the front... I just cut a TON of little 3.5 inch squares from what I had.) I also wanted something that was cheerful, eclectic and maybe even looked old fashioned in a way. You can see the picture I used for inspiration was bigger than mine... I ran out of steam. I did have to buy the white solid, I used a coupon at JoAnn's to buy Kona Cotton Solid White. The yellow was also a Kona solid, purchased with a gift card at Hobby Lobby.

After I had already started on mine and decided on white, I saw this picture. SWOON! I like hers better than mine, but it was too late! But that navy, mint, and grey. Oh my.

source

My mom strongly suggested I watch a tutorial about how to actually quilt it (the part where you sew all the layers together). I felt impatient though (just taking cues from my toddler), so I just went for it. And thus, there is some bunching. It was super hard to quilt on my little beginner machine. But we powered through and finished! It's not rocket science, but then again, mine definitely looks more home-made than professional. Shoulda' watched the video... Just don't look too closely :)

Next up, quilting my zig zag quilt that i can't find a picture of, so i'll leave you with suspense.
try to contain yourself.

Are you making anything!?