Quilt-a-beast

So how does a pregnant lady get a workout?

By basting a (large) twin size quilt on the floor.

I know. You don’t want to. But let’s face it, your not getting any less pregnant soon. So let’s get it out of the way.

Step 1: Put toddler down for nap. Move furniture and rug to find a place large enough to make your quilt sandwich. Sweep the floor. Scoop up dirt into dust pan. Eat lunch.

Step 2: Lay backing on floor right side down. On your hands and knees, smooth out wrinkles. Using painter’s tape, secure to floor. That was easy. No break. Ok fine, check your email.

Step 3: Line up batting to two sides of the backing. Smooth out wrinkles. Trim the other two sides with your good scissors. Smooth out wrinkles again. Use a little more painter’s tape to secure batting. Go check email again (but this time work email).

Step 4: Lay out your quilt, pretty side up, on top of the batting. Leave 2-4 inches around each side. Again, get down on all fours (don’t mind that belly!) and smoooooooth out all the wrinkles. Keep smoothing it out until it’s nice and flat. Crisp and sharp without the startch.

Then the hard part: baste all layers together using safety pins. (Manicure NOT recommended. A/C required.) On your hands and knees (again!), work on pinning one quarter of the quilt at a time. Make two passes. The first pass you will just place a pin at the center of each block and at the outer edges of the quilt. Find that triceps are burning (hooray!). Now, if your toddler wakes up you will at least have a decent baste job and can get your precious off the floor so your other precious won’t trample it.

Break out the Snickers bar you’ve been saving. It’s time for a break.

Ok, the baby’s still asleep. Start your second pass. Pin along sashings (why does spell check not like that? Did I spell it wrong?). Notice butt and thighs burning. Yah! (ish?)

Finally! Done! Drag pregnant self up off the ground. Use a piece of furniture to help if you need. (Heave!) Admire your work:

Finish Snickers bar. Check email and blogs.

Untape quilt sandwich from the floor. Rejoice that baby is still asleep and you can do some of the fun part: quilting! (Fine. Put room back in order before you do the fun stuff. Unroll carpet. Move back furniture and toys.)

For Amalie’s big girl bed quilt, I am quilting it using a loopy flowers design I saw here. I was going to do plain ole’ stippling, but I couldn’t get the tension right. Very frustrating, but I like flowers better. What I really like is that each flower is a separate unit – a manageable chunk if you will.

Backing is a sweet pink toile. Love me some toile.

Luckily my baby girl (ha, the one whom this big girl bed quilt is intended for!) slept for 2 more hours so I was able to get a good portion of her quilt quilted. Maybe a sixth? Too early to quantify. It will take me a while time. It measure 88 inches by 65 inches. But I’m resolved to finish it before tackling other projects.

Quilt-a-beast, indeed.

Pattern found here.