I finished the quilt my upcoming baby (due a week from today... or tomorrow, depending on who is doing the calculating). I wanted to do a good job. Really. From far away, of course, it looks fine. I did not, however, do my most professional job on this quilt. First of all, if I had really though about it I would've placed the squares a little differently. I mean, there are two yellows (the ONLY two yellows) right next to each other! Plus this quilt was screaming at me for another column-- but that would've meant that it would have been bigger than 45 inches across, meaning I would've had to piece together the backing instead of just using the fabric that I bought. I didn't want to line it/ use batting or anything because I like the weight and flexibility of simple double- sided flannel quilts *but* in this case the design from the backing fabric would have shown through the off-white on the front (who makes an off-white quilt for a BABY anyway?) so I lined it with an extra piece of off0white flannel. This makes the quilt three layers of flannel. And that's fine. One of the great things about flannel quilts is that you basically don't have to baste them. The flannel acts like a kind of velcro and if you're not a perfectionist it all works out ok. Unless you are using three pieces instead of two. So I didn't baste it and it's not as flat/ well put together as it should be. Lastly and this might be most important, the binding. I made binding, but not bias binding-- fine that's not so bad. But I machine sewed it on. Both sides. And I did it before I quilted it, which I just did in the seams of the columns only. It doesn't look great but it's finished, which is good because it means this baby can come any time now. When Talia was born I had a huge list of things I wanted to accomplish, like move some rooms around, stain the wood for our new railings on that stairs, and fix a mosaic table that had been damaged. The table was the last thing on my list. I remember talking to Ron on the phone saying, "Well, I just finished the table so I guess she can come now" and then going upstairs to relax and having my first contraction within an hour. In some ways I was stalling on the quilt for this reason and in some ways I was stalling because I wanted to do a better job on it, fix some of the problems, add that extra column. But of course now I'm in the middle of clutter clearing for the upcoming move (basically 8 weeks away) and also wanting to spend some more QT with Talia. I knew if I didn't finish it yesterday it wouldn't get done.
So this is my first apology to my new kid. I do promise to make you many quilts in the future. If you look at Talia's first quilt, you will see that I did a pretty shitty job on that too, but only for lack of experience. And I never even finished her second quilt, although I plan to do so someday, probably by the time she has a kid in 20-30 years since the fabric is very baby centered. I also apologize for some of the things I haven't done during this pregnancy, like: have a lot of conversations with you, read any of the pregnancy books to find out what new tricks you can do inside of me, eat well, exercise (not that I did that for your sister either), play you music or read you stories. I do promise to do all of those things after you are born (except exercise-- hopefully but no promises!)
Being the second child myself I am a little worried to find out exactly how much the second kid does get the shaft. Fewer presents, fewer pictures, less excitement in general, no QT, etc. I am pretty happy being a middle child and think I have (the positive aspects of a) middle child personality even though it was almost 8 years before my little brother was born. I don't really remember what life was like as the baby of the family. I have been told that my sister really liked me at first but I think this might be a ruse.
I go back and forth feeling sorry for Talia, whose life is going to be rocked in so many ways (the baby and the move being the major changes), and thinking this is a fantastic gift I get to give her. Up until a few days ago I was on the "fantastic gift" part but right now I'm in the "mourning phase" again. I am mourning the special time that we have always spent together, knowing that from now on it will be much less frequent, more distracted, probably have to be scheduled. I'm thinking of keeping her home from school today. She doesn't want to go anyway, has been really helpful as I clean (ok, not HELPFUL exactly but happy to find new toys and easily entertained while I clean), and I feel like taking an afternoon nap anyway. I don't have too many errands to run-- BJ's for newborn diapers if I make it and a trip to the Parking Authority which would be a nice walk on a day like today if I could walk more than a block without having to take a nap. So resolved-- I will keep her home from school today-- how many more days will we have together? Of course, that means that she will be home for 4 days in a row now but Ron has the weekend off and our plan is to spend some family QT together if possible. Everything I think of doing (Longwood Gardens, the zoo, whatever) involves a lot of walking so I'm not sure what we will end up doing.
Anyway, I guess I should start my day. The coffee is kicking in. Talia wants to take a shower together and the prospect of getting her dressed without tights or leggings (70 degrees today!) is kind of exciting.
Hope you all have a nice day too.
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