Yeehaw and Yippee-ki-yay

I finished the oldest Munchkin's Quickie Quilt yesterday. Naturally she slept with it last night. I had to get "creative" to solve a couple of miscalculations, tried a new technique, and learned some things.
- First, I didn't buy enough fabric for the center panel and the backing. So the quilt is "shorter than it is long." For Munchkin's purposes it doesn't matter she turns it sideways and it's the perfect 10 year old napping size.
- Second, when I cut the border and binding I miscalculated how many strips of each size I would need. I was left about 8 inches short on the borders. Luckily, Munchkin had picked the same fabric as I had used in a pillowcase, and low and behold I had a scrap just big enough to finish the border.
- Third, I didn't have enough backing fabric. So I had to beg, steal, borrow, and creatively piece the horse fabric to make it work. It's not ideal, but again, Munchkin is just thrilled with her horsey quilt.
- Fourth, I had planned to use leftover pieces of batting for this and Nugget's quilts. Wouldn't you know it the piece I had selected for this one was wonky on one side and about 2 inches short on part of one edge. So after recently reading about piecing batting, I decided that's what I would do using the zig zag stitch on my machine. Worked better than I could have imagined. In the past I had tried the hand sewing method, but due to my obsessive/complusive nature I always pulled my stitches too taut. I will definitely be using this technique again.

Now, why I like making these Quickie Quilts.
- The girls get to pick their own fabric combinations. Although they often don't pick things I would, the quilts turn out lovely and in the end mean so much to them because they picked out the fabric. And because they usually pick fabrics that reflect their current interests they LOVE the quilt.
- I can practice my freemotion quilting. After reading lots of posts recently about people being afraid of freemotion quilting, this is a good project to practice on. Cause let's be honest, these aren't going to be heirloom quilts. So don't look too closely at my stippling I didn't take my time.
- Because they are quick and easy to do, little cutting and seaming, they provide almost instant gratification for the Munchkins and me.
- And best of all the Munchkins have homemade Mommy goodness.

Here's Nugget's Quilt. I did my cutting, seaming, basting, and quilted a fourth of it this afternoon. It should be done in a couple of days.
Naturally she picked Asian(Chinese to her) fabrics. I like the parasols so much I might go buy some more for me.

Oh and here's a picture of a motley crew waiting for fireworks on the 4th.
And more Munchkin artwork.