My First Sewing Project

I got a sewing machine for Christmas, at my request, so that I could learn to sew. I thought it would be fun to make quilts - small ones. My friend Leslie, the Curly Crafter, is an awesomely talented indvidual who share with many her abilities via pictures, selling items and great advice. Some of her stuff seems not too difficult, so I was/am inspired to see what I could create. So, my first goal was to make a baby blanket for my friend Jessica. It started off good - found an easy pattern and some books from my sister-in-law. It took me FOREVER to pick out the fabric and to figure out how much I needed of each one. The pattern calls for 16 different polka-dot fabrics. The ladies at JoAnn's were super helpful, thank goodness. I think it all went pretty well for a first-timer. It's definitely not perfect and I still have no clue how to do a binding, so I just folded the back over the front and called it good. Had some issues with finishing it - couldn't get a needle with yarn through it to tie it. Somewhere I read that a walking foot is needed for machine quilting - don't have one. I finally found a stitch that wouldn't look bad if it wasn't spaced evenly as I try to feed the blanket through the machine. So, I just followed each seem with a wavy stitch and called it good. Definitely not going to win any contests, but I am super happy with the way it turned out. Because darling Jessica's baby wouldn't wait until the day she was scehduled to be born and decided to come a week & a half early, I had less time to finish and once I finished it Saturday, rushed it down to her and didn't take a picture after I did the machine quilting on it. However, here it is nearly complete:

The back is red minkee - super soft!

Before I finished this one, I decided that it was easy enough to try again and wanted to make one for our baby. I cut the fabric a couple of weeks ago while at my in-laws and started sewing it last night. I have four more pieces to put on, three of which I am not sure what they are going to be yet. I am going to get a blue minkee for the back and I think it's going to be fabulous. The second one seems to be better quality, now that I kind of know what I am doing (sorry, Jess!).

Here it is so far:

I decided to put in some solid colors, not all polka dots and I do like that. I also decided that it is OK to repeat a couple of the fabrics and so for the last four pieces I need to decide what they be - maybe repeat of something else. I am liking it so far! The back will be a blue minkee when I can get it 50% off again. Have to watch for the JoAnn's coupon - that stuff is a little spendy, but 1/2 off is managable!