Doll Quilt #1: Ta-Da!

I finally finished my niece's first doll quilt. The second is yet to come. Isn't this the cutest little quilt? Each block is a variation of a star block, and it was good for me to work on this because it allowed me to practice piecing new blocks (I've not made these types of blocks before), and to practice on my new sewing machine.

I can honestly say that it is so much more fun to sew on a nicer machine. The piecing of this quilt took longer than the actual quilting and adding of the binding. Hooray for small quilts that don't take long to quilt! I can see the appeal of mini-quilts now.

I decided to machine-sew the binding on. That is the first time I've done that, and I liked that it was done quickly, which means it will probably be done again.

these stitches look much nicer than the ones done on my old machine. Hooray for a built-in walking foot!

I love that tiny floral fabric, and that the quilt looks cute from the back, too

I quilted each block a little differently

I didn't want to over-quilt this because the pattern of the fabrics on the quilt-top is what I wanted to shine through most. So I quilted this mostly "in the ditch." I used matching yellow thread on the back (the bobbin thread), and a light gray on the front so that the fabric and patterns of the stars would be "the star"--see what I did there?-- and the quilting would melt into the background.

Cute, cute! Fun fun.

And bonus, when my niece grows up, she can use this as a fancy placemat. Ha ha.