I Did It!

Woohoo!  It's done!  I did it!  I really, truly made a quilt!  High-fives all around, please.  

Okay, but yeah, it's not perfect--I had a little problem finishing the binding in that nice seamless looking way it is supposed to be finished so I just gave up and sewed it together in whatever half-assed way I could manage.  Also, yes, I took the easy route because I tied the quilt top rather than quilted it--but c'mon, it's a picnic quilt, which I thing lends itself to hand-tying and that low-tech, old fashioned sorta look--right?  And really, I was not entirely happy with the combo of fabrics once I laid them all out--too much pattern competing for your eye and also the off-white calico I used with the little purple violets--well, it just did not work for me.  I felt like my grandma came along and inserted her own nightgown in there. 

But aside from ALL THAT, yeah, I am good with it.  It came together pretty easily, and I really, really liked the process of hand-sewing on the binding--mostly because I like to hand sew, but also because the binding just makes a quilt come together, like putting a painting in the right frame.  And most of all, when I gave it to Rae, well, she was just very touched and I really felt like making the quilt communicated the gratitude to her I feel--which is what it was all about anyway. Well, that and banishing my never-made-a-quilt-before-anxiety.  

Next up?  My own picnic quilt.  Except this time I think I will make a Denyse Schmidt quilt design because she already has that whole solid fabric to print fabric ratio figured out and her designs are just so damn beautiful they make my stomach hurt.  And who does not want to have a picnic quilt that makes their stomach hurt?