Another finish! Well, almost...

This is my "welcome to the world" gift for baby Oak. And I'm really happy because, although far from expert, my quilting skills are coming along. Most of my points meet or are "close enough". And thanks to Heather and her tutorial I now feel like Queen of the continuous quilt binding! My corners are all perfectly mitered. This makes me very happy!



Scattered around the quilt are bits of embroidery. You know I couldn't leave that out! I am loving this squirrel!! I added some quilting stitches throughout his tail so once the quilt is washed he should look fluffy.



And, of course, his name and birth date had to be on there somewhere.





I also felt an oak leaf was needed. How could I not include one? It had to be done.





And who can resist a sweet little bunny? Not me, that's for sure. I think I even prefer little brown woodland rabbits to white rabbits.

I'm also very pleased that the more I practice hand quilting, the better I get. I know, it seems like a logical conclusion. But the very first time I tried quilting by hand I was not thrilled. Sure, I labelled my uneven three stitches-per-inch as primitive and rustic and tried to pretend it was intentional. But, truth be told, I wasn't pleased. I know what looks nice and what my hands were producing had tons of room for improvement.

I'm not ready to sit around an Amish woman's quilting frame (ack! the very thought! LOL!) but my smaller-than-before, relatively even, five stitches-per-inch are a huge improvement. I do think they actually look pretty ok. I think I might even be able to eek out six stitches per inch next time around.

All that's left is to stitch down the back side of the binding. And since American Idol and House are on tonight (the only shows I make an effort to watch...well, Medium too), I don't think it will be a problem.

I promised someone I'd post an embroidery tutorial. It's coming. Soon...very soon. I've had several people mention that they wish they could embroider so my goal with this tutorial will be focussed on starting at the absolute beginning. And really, you'd be amazed at how much you can accomplish with very limited embroidery skills.