(A Little) Better Late Than Never

Shortly before Lucas and Veronika's twins were born, this post on the crafting blog Two Little Banshees inspired me to make two baby quilts to celebrate the then-eminent arrival of Genevieve and Celestine.

In just a few days I designed, cut, pieced, and basted the quilts. Only then did I realize that my sewing machine didn't have the proper machine foot to do quilting and I couldn't find any other machine to use. My only option seemed to be to quilt the whole thing by hand. Intimidated, I set the half-finished baby quilts aside.



Last weekend, Lucas, Veronika, Dev, and I took all of our kids to Griffith Park, where we reflected on the fact that the twins were just turning nine months old. I figured that the last possible occasion for which I could give the babies these quilts was the twins' first birthday, so I had to finish them. (I also wanted to clear out a backlog of half-finished projects before the holidays.)

Still intimidated by the idea of all that hand-sewing (with invisible thread, no less), I decided to grit my teeth and just try quilting with the regular sewing machine foot that I already had.

It definitely wasn't easy - quilting feet exist for a reason - but it is possible.

From far away, as in these photos, the quilts don't look half bad. From close-up? Well, they aren't going to win any prizes, that's for sure. If you look carefully, you can see many, many very glaring - and embarasssing - mistakes.

But they're done! And I can tell myself that the fact that the quilts are already a little rough means that L&V can let their kids drag them around with abandon.

At least I can say I learned a lot making these "practice quilts" and someday when I have all the proper equipment I'd love to embark on a queen-size bed quilt for the guest bedroom. Or maybe just two slightly nicer toddler-sized quilts for Genevieve and Celestine...