Owl always love you!

My new baby niece arrived a little bit earlier than expected, and I had only bought the fabric for her quilt about a fortnight before.   I had entered Calico Kate's quilt shop in Lampeter with quite a clear picture in my head of what I wanted to make.  I only needed three fabrics- a statement print, and two complementary smaller prints - I thought it would be easy! It wasn't- even with the vast selection available in Calico Kate. 
On my many circuits of the shop a bright cheerful Owl panel kept catching my eye, so I abandoned my original plan, and decided on a simple quilt with a central panel and matching border.   I am in the camp who believe that children's items should be bright and cheerful, and this certainly is! It's all made from the "Owl in the family" line of fabrics by Desirees designs.  Owls seem to be in fashion at the moment, and my Dad (the baby's Grandpa) said that they symbolise wisdom, so we hope baby will be clever!
I really love the owl puns written around the border fabric.

The quilt top was super-easy to put together, I simply cut out the panel, and added two borders from the complementary fabric.  I used a poly-cotton wadding, and backed the quilt with another fabric from the same range. Backing the quilt at this stage was a mistake, as the next thing I did was outline quilt around many of the features on the central panel, to give the quilt a 3D effect. The pictures on the front are outlined in black, so this was the only suitable thread choice.  This gave me a dilemma.  Hand quilting stitches would show on both sides of the quilt, and I didn't like the idea of black outlines on the lovely pale green back.  I decided to machine quilt, with black on the top, and pale green bobbin thread.  There would have been two advantages to only quilting through the top fabric and wadding and adding the backing afterwards; firstly, I could have used the same black thread in bobbin and top spool, which would have solved any slight tension issues going around the intricate designs; secondly, I wouldn't have needed to bother with the most tedious task in quilting - burying all those thread-ends. I absolutely hate this task, although these easy-threading needles have really helped.  Instead of threading the needle in the usual way, you just pull the thread over the back of the needle, and it threads itself.  A real sanity-saver!

Sewing around all those intricate designs also called for the use of another tool I wish I didn't need - the seam fix!  This gadget is a really, really good seam-ripper.  The point is lovely and sharp, and the rubbery white ends help to pull all the loose threads out neatly.  The only thing that irritates me about this is that the cap which covers the pointy end for storage doesn't fit on the other end when in use.

The reason the seam-ripper had so much use, was that I tried to free-motion around the outlines.  This first picture shows my wonky attempt around this poor owl's eyes and ears.  I think it's a little bit scary-looking!

The next picture shows what I can do with my walking foot if I go very, very slowly.  Pretty neat, if I do say so myself!

Although insufficient skill is a large part of the problem, the different machine feet also contribute. I have two walking feet for my machine.  For this work I used the open-toe one, which means that I can see exactly where the needle is going in the fabric.

The free motion foot, however, is clear plastic.  Although in theory, you can see through the plastic, it actually refracts the light and distorts my view, so I can't clearly see the crucial exact point where the needle enters the fabric.  An open-toe free motion foot is definitely on my wish-list now.

Trials and tribulations aside, I love the 3D effect now that it's finished.  Although it doesn't photograph well, it really lifts the quilt in real-life.  Most important of all, the new parents liked their gift, and hopefully baby will too when she's a little older.