WIP Wednesday

saturday night i started picking out fabrics for a baby quilt for M's niece erinn. i had some prints i wanted to use but couldn't if i made a zig zag quilt as planned. i also wanted something different since i had made erinn's cousin julie a zigzag quilt for her first baby last fall. i really liked the whirligig quilt safieh made last week and had already thought about making one. on a late-night run to joann on saturday, i picked up an 8.5" square ruler. i didn't really like the tool safieh purchased to make the whirligigs, and i had already figured out that i could just mark the lines on a regular ruler and then could cut all four sides at once.



sunday afternoon at 2:30, i had a telephone conference with safieh and confirmed that i could start with 11" squares and use the 8.5" ruler to make the whirligigs, and she helped me figure out where to draw the lines on my ruler with a Sharpie. i started cutting my 11" squares and was pleased to use up most of the yellow solid, the yellow tone on tone print, the blue stripe and the green polka dot fabrics. i was left with just a few small pieces to incorporate into the backing and the binding.

by the end of the evening on sunday - even taking breaks for a late lunch, an unplanned visit from a friend, making cornish game hens for dinner, doing some housekeeping, and having an epic fail in that i cut the border strips too narrow and had to slice them off and cut and sew on new, wider ones - i had all of my whirligig blocks cut out and ready to sew together. having a great helper was crucial to this! i also had a schedule to keep me on track so i could have the quilt finished by next sunday night.



monday i pieced all the blocks together into a top.



tuesday i pieced the backing and prepped the binding. i was able to use up all of the rest of both baby boy prints, the blue/green/yellow print and the scraps left over from the yellow solid, the yellow tone on tone print, the blue stripe and the green polka dot fabrics.

i decided to wait to baste until i had someone to help, and M won't be back until late tonight at the earliest. i'd like to have it ready to sew the binding on in the car on the way to amanda's wedding in nacagdoches on saturday. even if i don't, i'm still optimistic that i can finish the quilt by sunday night so i can move on to the other baby quilt that i need to have finished by the sunday after that.