A Quilt for Baby

I didn't know that I would be pregnant when I signed up for the Machine Quilting Class at Purl Patchwork. When the class started in May, I was already experiencing the all-day-sickness. Each week, I dragged myself into class and I found it to be a pleasant distraction from being sick. I had something to concentrate on and I was out of the house which was a nice change from laying on the couch or bed all day and night.

I enjoyed the class tremendously. There was only one other student besides myself, so we got a lot of attention. My teacher, Cassandra, was wonderful. She was patient, friendly and extremely talented. It turns out that the 3 of us were all knitters, so we had that in common.The class turned out to be a techniques class, (originally the supplies list said that we were making a baby quilt). There was no specific project that we had to work on, but we could choose one if we wanted to. Each week, she showed us a different technique. My favorite was learning to make triangles and quarter triangles. I pieced together triangles to form a star pattern block. Without meaning to, I noticed that it formed a 8 sided star. 8 is very good number in Chinese.I love the Japanese Crane Print Fabric that I got from a Etsy seller based in Japan. The red and navy fabric has Origami Cranes, flowers and leaves all over it. All the motifs are outlined in a gold metallic color. The fabric is very colorful.I took the techniques I learned in class and made the quilt at home. I made the quilt top a month after classes were over when I began to feel a little better. It still took another month before I bought the fabric for the back of the quilt. The binding is a labor of love. It's machine stitched on the front, but hand stitched on the back. The hand stitching was tedious, but it was totally worth it for the that invisible look. The blanket measures 30 1/2" by 34".For other people who have the Hello Kitty Janome Sewing Machine (mint green, 3/4 size one), I bought a quilting kit from AllBrands.com that worked perfectly for my machine. It made the machine quilting process a lot easier. It comes with a walking foot, quilting guide, darning/embroidery foot, quarter-inch seam foot, feed-dog cover plate and a deluxe zig-zag foot with deluxe shank.