It's Done!

Last night I finished sewing down the binding on the baby quilt I've been working on. Here it is....all finished. The Bear Paw is an older pattern, but this layout is one I just came up with on my own. I had planned to use 12 blocks, but that made the quilt much too large, so I used 4 blocks and then used some of the sub-units on the outside along with the half-square triangles in the corners.
This is the very first quilt that I have machine quilted. I am a hand quilter, but I felt this little quilt would need frequent washing and the machine quilting would probably be a better choice. I used flannel for the backing on this quilt. The dots matched the colors on the front so well.
However, I'm not sure I will use flannel when I make the next 2. I pin basted heavily and used my walking foot, but the backing seemed to want to creep and pucker. Therefore, I think the next 2 will have a regular cotton backing. I wanted the backing to feel cuddly. The flannel does that, but it is more difficult to work with.

I used varying length of the scraps to make my binding. I think that worked well, and I will do the same on the others. Using the small pieces is also the frugal thing to do....makes the most of my quilting $$.
You can see my binding a little better in the above photo.

Now I just have to wash the quilt and pack it for mailing. When I do pack it, I am including 5 burp pads that I made for this little guy. I looked at several different sites on the web and used some hints from each of them to come up with a burp cloth I liked. The basic pattern I used is from CraftAndFabricLinks.com under their free patterns section. Here's the 2 prints that will go in the box with the quilt. I hope the new mom and dad will find these little gifts useful. I know I certainly enjoyed sewing them.

For those of you who stop by my blog from time to time....you probably notice I've added a little statement on my sidebar at the top. I'd like to explain why I did that. Recently I saw a situation where a blogger went to another blog, took a picture without obtaining permission and then used it on his/her own blog. That is openly copyright violation. I just wanted to have a prominent reminder hoping to make folks think before they take what isn't theirs to take. I hope this doesn't offend anyone as I can assure you it wasn't meant to. I am generous and willing to share if asked. I am a firm believer in giving credit where credit is due and I try very hard to do that in my postings. I appreciate many of the quilters, designers, and companies who provide the patterns and supplies that I use when I do the things I love best....sew and quilt. I want to give credit to them for the things they share and produce, and I hope that it in some small way it might increase the sale of what they market. I also spent some time recently reading about copyright issues....and I was amazed at what I found when it comes to a blog. I didn't know that the blog owner could be responsible for comments left by others on their blog. With that in mind, I also decided to change my comments to be moderated before publishing. Did you also know that if you put up a post that has something that is a copyright violation....and then you take that item down.....it doesn't necessarily make the violation issue go away. And....if that copyright violation occurs on a blog that is a commercial or "for profit" blog, things could become even more sticky if someone goes after you in regards to that violation. If you've never read about copyright, you might want to Google that subject and read some articles on some of the reputable sites. It will either amaze you...or put you to sleep! I also went a step further in my quest for knowledge and asked my daughter, who took copyright and patent law, about the subject. She shared more than I ever wanted to know because she particularly loves the subject of copyright law. She tells me it is a very fast changing topic with lots of black, white and grey areas.

I like having a blog for myself and my friends and visitors. I try to keep my posts dedicated to what I'm working on and avoid controversial content......and I plan to continue doing things that way. I will continue to visit the blogs I enjoy and leave comments. I hope you will continue to visit mine.....and leave a comment now and again.