Pre Wash Celebration!

It took the free time from two mornings, but I managed to make the bias binding and get it machine stitched in place. I'm still not a morning person, but so far I'm getting more done in the mornings - possibly because I feed the cat, then get started before he's finished eating. With no pile of inviting fabric sitting still, he settles in and supervises from my office chair while I work. This works much better than having him sit on the sewing desk while I try to work!

In all honesty, I think one of the reasons I've been struggling the last month or so is because I knew I had to work on this quilt, and frankly, I was a little bit out of love with it. My 'neutral' triangles weren't big enough, so I lost my outer edge points to the binding and squaring up - which started us down a dark path. Then, the sewing machine tension battle was a bit of a nightmare, and three hours of seam ripping was a big drawback. Things started looking up with the binding; making the binding went smoothly, and it went on with out any major issues. But I didn't fall back in love with the quilt until I took it outside for pre-wash photos.

Ready?

That hardly looks like the lack luster quilt I've been sharing 'flat' photos of - right? The colors are suddenly looking right, and in this setting, it finally looks like a plan instead of the mess I was beginning to feel I'd made.

This is what I've been aiming for - I just had to get it out and take some real photos of it instead of those straight on, straight down ones that wash it out and show off every mistake instead of focusing on the thing as a whole. When I started this quilt, I knew this was in here, I just lost it along the way and I'm so amazed and thrilled to see it again!

Even the back of the quilt benefited from the better lighting and setting.

And last but not least, here's my favorite. Okay, it might not show off the quilt as much, but look at those clouds!

I'm so relieved to be back in love with this one! I've been racking my brain trying to come up with an alternative I could force to work for this Welcome Baby Package, and knowing nothing I already had on hand would feel as right as using the fabric I picked out months before finding out it was time to put it to use. Now that I've re-awoken to seeing this quilt as a whole, a beautiful, vibrant whole instead of a sum of all the issues I've had getting there, I'm ready to move on and focus on the rest of the things I hope to include in this package. And ready to keep sewing and quilting. YES!