Hand-sewn all it's cracked up to be?

Today we're featuring a quilt from Mary at Pin. Sew. Press. (I so wish I thought of that blog name, CUTE!)  It's a darling charm pack quilt that she made for her daughter, thus it's called Lauren's Quilt.  And I just love the backing fabric she used, perfect for a 2 year old (or a 20 something year old alike :)  Here's Mary:

It's a bit busy for my taste, but Lauren (my 2-year-old) absolutely loves the fabric as has lots of fun pointing out the owls, snails, turtles, trees, flowers and birds.

I used straight line quilting for this, mostly because I'm not brave enough to try free-motion quilting yet! I quilted straight lines 1/2" apart on the sashing, and eyeballed straight-ish lines approximately 1" apart across the blocks.

The fabric is Love U by Deb Strain for Moda, and I think it's perfect for a fun 2-year-old quilt.

I used this tutorial by Elizabeth from Oh, Fransson! for the quilt pattern. Since the tutorial is for a baby quilt, I modified it a bit by adding 1 1/2 more charm squares to the width, and two additional rows to the length. I wanted this to be large enough for Lauren to use at night on her toddler mattress, although she hasn't really gotten the hang of sleeping under covers yet!

I just love those owls!

 

I was also feeling particularly brave yesterday and decided to hand-sew the binding to the back of this quilt. I usually machine sew my binding, and to be honest the result doesn't bother me much. I guess I'm not a "binding snob" . . . yet! But I was intrigued by the romantic notion I seem to hear about from all the other quilters - of curling up on the couch with my husband for several hours, chatting and watching tv while hand sewing binding.

I found this awesome tutorial that finally made sense of the hand sewing process for me. And after a mere five hours, I can finally say that I get it! It really does look pretty good, compared to machine sewing, but it sure did take a LONG time! And it was kind of nice to spend time with my family while sewing, and be a bit more productive while watching tv . . . but did I mention that it took a long time?!?! Well, at least I overcame my fear of hand-sewing, but I can't promise I won't go back to machine sewing binding, at least some of the time!

Well coming from a "binding snob" :)  I can say I absolutely love the finished project!  And binding is my absolute favorite part of the process...looks like a fabulous job!  Thanks for sharing, and make sure to hop on over to Pin. Sew. Press. where she has darling projects and is just a straight-up fun read for any quilter!

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