First Finished Quilt of the Year - A Baby Quilt and a Matching Gift Bag

On Friday I got the backing flannel washed and on the frame and found a piece of left over batting that was the perfect size.  I usually try to mount my quilts sideways so that each row of quilting covers a longer distance and also there are fewer times you have to roll and reposition the quilt across the shorter width.  This only works if the quilt or pantograph or both are non directional.  This baby quilt has a definite top and bottom and also the pantograph has a right way up as well.  I decided to attach the quilt from the bottom so that I could quilt the pantograph the right way round to make it easier on my brain.  You can see in the picture here, that the quilt is upside down and what you can see of the pantograph in the background is also upside down so when completed they will both be right side up.  Clear as mud?

I started quilting on Monday and only had one row left to do on Tuesday.  Here is what the quilting looked like on the back when I took it off the frame.  I was looking for something with stars and moons so the cow jumping over the moon fit in with the nursery rhyme theme of the quilt.

Here is a close up of the central panel on the front of the quilt.  I like how a cow jumping over the moon just happened to end up in the night sky right above the owls and the mother owl appears to be looking up at it.

Here is the finished quilt on the rocking chair that was in both my children's bedrooms.

Here's a closeup of the checkerboard binding and the label and the quilting on the back after washing.  The cow theme was also appropriate because the woman I'm making the quilt for, Auntie Kim,  called her niece, who is expecting the baby, Moo Moo when she was little and Moo Moo has already asked her Aunt to call her baby-to-be Little Moo Moo.

Since this was a gift, I made a gift bag for it.

I was thinking I would have to go to the fabric store to get something to use for a drawstring but then I decided to use the selvedge edge of the fabric for ties.  It's nice and sturdy and worked great.  I ironed the raw edge under by a quarter inch and then ironed the folded edge to meet the finished selvedge edge and then top stitched close to both edges.  I'll use this method again.