It only felt like...

A Trip Around the World.

Chris' cousin and his wife had a baby in December after years of trying and complications.  We were all over the moon happy for them and Chris and I wanted to make something special for them.  He's still trying to figure out what to build them, but I FINALLY finished up the baby quilt I made for sweet Izzy.

After finishing the blocks, I machine-embroidered her name on the quilt and then attempted to machine-embroider a flower only to have it tear a hole in the quilt top.  So, I found this little satin applique at Walmart of all places and added it over the mishap.

 When it came to quilting I wasn't sure, so this project took a little nap for awhile while I thought.  I wanted to do straight lines along the diagonals, but Izzy's name was in the way.  So I thought I'd meander-quilt it with hearts or flowers included but still her name was there and bugging me.  So I decided to just draw a circle around her name and go from there.  But then I liked the idea of circles (because I just do) so I traced both a plate and a saucer all over the quilt and machine-quilted over them.

I tried to use my free-motion foot, but my machine kept jamming up, so these are with just a regular foot and lots of pivoting and moving.  :)

For the back I just grabbed fabrics in pink, green, or brown and slapped them together.  I'm not a big fan of the back, but the quilting does show up nicely.

So, honesty time--This quilt is not my favorite.  It seems like this quilt fought me at every turn and it seemed like a battle to get it done.  But I was trying to marry my style with someone else's who has very different tastes to me.  She is very traditional, elegant, etc.  I'm whimsical, bright, and eclectic.  So I guess I'm not surprised.  A few times I really considered just starting all the way over and doing something different, but with Izzy embroidered on the front, it makes it kinda hard to re-tool the project and I hated to trash something I'd worked on and was so near completion.

I plan to give it to them with the understanding that it's not an heirloom quilt.  Izzy can roll, spit up, play, and nap on it.  She can drag it around, make a fort with it, keep it in the car/stroller/etc. Whatever floats their boat.  I hope it will get much use out of it and that they'll know we love them and wanted to make them feel special.  I guess that's all you can really ask for with a gift.

I am glad to be done with this project and hopefully they will love it.  Not all of our finishes have to be favorites, sometimes we can get bogged down by what we see as negatives.  I'm not going to--I'm going to see this as a finish that will hopefully provide comfort and love to a family I care about.  And now I've got time to work on a project I do love, so it's a win-win!

Have you ever made a gift that you weren't overly fond of?  Did you go ahead and gift it or start over?