A Baby Quilt

My latest sewing project was completed almost 2 months ago and since then, I've not managed to start another project or stitch anything else. Ever since Hubby started office-bound work, I've felt my free time significantly reduced. I never realised how much help he was when he was around the house those days. Even though it was just helping to send KK to school and fetch him back, the uninterrupted time I have at home and another person to help distract XX makes a difference. Now, I struggle to even find time to complete reading a book, even after having to renew it 2 times.

Anyway, back to the project. It was a little baby quilt for my yet to be born nephew. Hubby's sis is finally gonna have her first baby and I find it very appropriate to send her a handmade baby quilt as a gift. It's much more personal and special than those store-bought ones and for the family, it's worth the extra effort.

Inspiration for the quilt came from 2 books that I borrowed from the local library. Both are totally disctinctive in their themes - one is on Japanese quilt blocks and the other, country style quilts. I radically combined them together in one quilt, but I guess it turned out alright. Four 9 x 9-inch bear face blocks, a favourite for kids, were mixed with some self-designed "bow-tie" blocks, surrounding a single chinese character "fu" (Happiness). I want the quilt to represent their joy and also convey how happy we are for my sis-in-law and her hubby.

As usual, I had a lot of fun sewing it. The quilt is machine stitched but this time, I hand quilted the whole quilt instead of using the sewing machine. It's a lot more tedious but after a while, I got the hang of it and I'm able to make smaller even stitches faster. It's better than pulling the whole quilt through the little sewing machine that I have.

Hope baby M will like it. Congratulations, SP and James!