Birthday Quilt

I post this with some serious hesitation.  Just know that I'm not really crazy.  I'm going to leave it at that because if I take too long to explain myself my baby will wake up, and this post will never get done.

So right after I had my baby and while I was high on painkillers in the hospital, I thought about a stack of Anna Maria Horner Innocent Crush fabric I had sitting in my sewing room.  I have full yards of 7 different fabrics, and it was kind of eating away at me that it was going to be months most likely until I could get to it.  Then I realized that my husband was going to be taking my two oldest kids to his folks house for a long weekend, and that I would have my mom around to help me with my new born baby.

An idea was born in my brain.  What if I asked my mom, as a birthday present to me (my birthday was July 5th), if she would help me make a birthday quilt for myself while we had just Henry to take care of.  Of course she said yes, and when I say help, I mean she held Henry if I needed her to while I sew.

Sew, I found the perfect quilt design that for some reason I thought would be super easy.  Let me just testify to anyone out there reading this that "easy" and "quilting" should never be used in the same sentence.  I mean it wasn't a difficult pattern, but quilting takes time and it requires repetitive steps and sewing which gets very tedious after a while.  Anything that takes so much time should not be called easy!

However, I will also testify that quilting is always worth it.  I mean just look at my version of the New Wave Quilt.  It's gorgeous if I do say so myself.

My own secret or hot tip when sewing this is I did a little stack n' wack on the trapezoids that you have to cut.  I first cut my fabric into 6 inch by 9 inch rectangles, and then using my rotary cutter and ruler I angled my ruler and made the necessary cuts that Oh, Fransson! says you to make when creating the template.  Sorry if that makes no sense.  I wasn't thinking when I made the quilt, and I have no pictures at all of the process.  Leave a  comment if you need a more detailed explanation.  

I even inscribed my Birthday Quilt.  Happy Birthday to me!  (You'll need to read that upside down because of the way I hung my quilt and took the pictures.  Oops!)

The back was a bit trick to design (I just didn't know what to do).  I'm totally in love with the back as much as I am the front.

My only complaint about my quilt is my FMQ isn't totally awesome.  I've done better, but this is a minor issue, and I'm pretty sure I'm the only one that will ever notice any flaws.

Now, readers, I'm going back to maternity leave.  I'm really not sure when I'm returning.  Mothering 3 little ones under the age of 5 is a wee bit exhausting, and most nights I'm turning in right after my kids are asleep.  My sewing nights are a thing of the past for a little bit.  Once we get everyone (mainly Henry) on a decent sleeping schedule, I'm sure you'll hear from me again.  Hopefully it's sooner, rather than later!

Tootles for now!