Who's ready for some tummy time?

I did it! The Hide and Seek Spectrum Quilt (aka Biscuit's tummy time quilt, aka my VERY FIRST quilt) is done! It was a slow process, from selecting the perfect solids and patterned fabrics to cutting and assembling every little piece, learning how to put the walking foot on my sewing machine, figuring out how to quilt (and what thread colors to use for quilting), creating my first strip of bias tape, and learning how to bind the quilt.

The binding was probably the spot where I had my biggest boo-boo. As I said, this was my first time making bias tape, and I followed the directions of all the tutorials — calculate the distance around the quilt and then add 20 or so inches to make sure you have plenty. Problem: all the tutorials use just one fabric (meaning they're only connecting six-ish strips), whereas I'd decided to use all 18 of my solids and make a rainbow binding, so I had 18 strips to piece together.

So you can guess what happened. After I'd cut and pieced them all together, I was about 30 inches short. Oops. I had to make up for it by cutting several more strips, which meant repeating the rainbow so I ended up with a side that had multiple strips in the same color. It also meant that I had one little orange strip left when I pieced the beginning and end together.

I don't think it's terribly noticeable when you're looking at the quilt as a whole, but it's definitely a lesson learned. Here's how I ended up quilting the sashing — parallel lines in each of the darker solid colors.

And then I quilted around the window on each block.

Here's a close-up of part of the binding, showing the rainbow strip.

I decided to use white thread in the bobbin for quilting, and it turned out great. You see some light squares in the middle rainbow strip, and it's hardly noticeable everywhere else.

I bound the quilt completely by machine because, as I've mentioned before, hand sewing really isn't my forte. On the front, I stitched in the ditch so you don't see the thread, and I used white thread in the bobbin, so it shows up on the rainbow binding on the back. Even though it's not hidden, I like the way it ended up looking.

Another close-up of the binding. I call this my Aggie corner.

And here's how Biscuit will see it on the floor, with the windows open.

Open the window, and what do you see? Cows, frogs, eggplants, people, and planes!

Tomatoes, bees, lemons, and pigs!

It's not perfect by a long shot, but I'm so happy with how it turned out and all the new techniques I learned along the way.

I'm not sure quilting will be my new passion, but working through the process and seeing all my hard work come to such a pleasing conclusion was wonderful, and I'm certain I'll do it again.

At the very least, I have to finish the Kitchen Window quilt I started last winter, right?

I can't wait for Biscuit to use it!