Days 4 and 5 of working on the baby quilt

Saturday I sat and hand sewed the centre large square.  The quilted piece had been pinned to the white backing when I found it so all I had to do was to sew it in place.  Little tiny stitches were required.

I started on it and thought that it would be much easier to sew if it were in an embroidery ring.

Yep, back to the workshop I went because I know I had seen some of those in my Mum in law's stuff.

I found them along with a lot of embroidery stencils.  I also found some quilting stencils for when you stitch the three layers together.  I need to google how to use them sometime.  For this quilt I am doing straight lines as stated in the Fiskar intructions I am following.

Quilt making for beginners

I also found a 24" x 6" quilting grid ruler which will be a big help cutting out the border and many packs of cardboard shapes cut out with instructions.  They are different designs for quilt squares using various shapes.  They must be what my MIL used to make all those different quilt square treasures I found which I posted about.

Sunday was a total chill day for me.  Don't get many of those so it was nice.  First of all I worked on this blog, updating the pages which are photos only. Then I watched the hype of the Superbowl and then I watched the game.  I really enjoyed it all.  I did get off my butt to make meals and such so I wasn't totally lazy.

Yesterday, I had to move some stuff around.  I had been keeping all my quilting stuff in one tote but with the new found items I needed another container.  So now all my fabric is in one tote and all the books, magazines, stencils, patterns etc. are in another.

Then I sat down and sewed.  I finally plucked up the courage to start sewing things together.  I sewed together the squares into strips.  Leastwise, I did the bottom two rows and the top two and the two half rows that go either side of the centre square.

I used a fabric guide on my sewing which helped a lot.  I also realised how much better it was to sew using the squares that I had cut out using the rotary cutter.  So nice and straight and hardly any fraying.  (The next quilt will be easier because of the cutter......woah! did I just say 'next one'?  Only the other day I was saying 'never again'.  I do have all those beautiful quilt squares my MIL made so I suppose there will be at least one more.  Of course, if any more babies come along, I might have to make another.  Then who knows, I might be hooked........)

The next tricky bit will be getting the centre square sized correctly.  Then, when that is done, sewing it all together and getting the squares lined up.

Will have today to think about it as we are going out shopping today before the possible snow tomorrow.