Well, not literally dirty.
Baby S has grandparents in the UK and Germany, so it was inevitable that we were going to need a travel cot at some stage.
I bought a Samsonite Bubble pop-up cot (which is supposed to be suitable from 18 months but there didn't seem much point in buying anything smaller) and also got a separate blow-up mattress for it because the one that comes with the cot is really thin. However, there does not seem to have been much creative thinking at Samsonite, because the thin mattress (which attaches to the cot with velcro) no longer attaches once you put the blow up one in underneath. Which is pretty stoopid if you ask me.
Anyway.
Mr G's aunt sent us some baby goodies from Germany and amongst them was a quilted mattress protector, and I was inspired to make one to fit the blow up mattress so that Baby S isn't sleeping pretty much on non-breathable plastic (separated only by a thin sheet).
And we were supposed to be going to see my parents today so I did some quick and dirty quilting and made this:
I say we were supposed to be going today but it seems that in my post-birth addled brain I managed to book flights for last week by mistake (well, it was only 2 weeks after Baby S was born) and only discovered this when I tried to check in on-line last night. Cue much frustration and tears, especially as I've spent the whole week frantically trying to get ready for the trip and it's my dad's birthday today.
Anyway. Deep breath. I've booked new flights, and double checked the dates this time. And Aer Lingus are going to refund me some airport taxes, so all is not lost.
And at least now we are three quarters packed and I can do a bit of sewing, perhaps even for myself, before we go. And in the meantime, I still have the under-quilt finished.
You'll laugh when I tell you I wanted something quick and simple, but if you had the time to sit down and do this without the lengthy distractions of a wriggle monster, I reckon it would only take a day. As it was, I started on Sunday and finished it yesterday morning.
I have to admit that it's not a quality product, but I think for a first try at this sort of thing, it turned out pretty well. I used my usual Ikea Bomull and some left over cotton quilt wadding from the Lila Tueller patchwork quilt, pinned everything together, drew round a teacup for my initial circle, and then just went round in circles, with the sewing machine needle set to the right and using the width of the presser foot as a distance marker. So the lines are roughly a centimetre apart.
I used a bought white bias binding around the edge, partly because I didn't have time to cut any Bomull bias, and partly because once we're past the travel cot stage, I intend to dye this quilt dark blue. And here's the potentially clever bit, I used polyester thread for the heart, and cotton thread for the rest, so it should still come out of the dye bath with a red heart. It would be really nice if this worked.
And, I also added little loops for attaching elastic to keep the quilt on the mattress, but which can then be removed once the quilt becomes a non-mattress quilt.
What I learned about quilting:
- safety pins at 3" apart are not sufficient to keep the fabrics from moving
- moving fabric means that when you quilt in a hurry, you end up catching little folds of fabric everywhere (although this looks minutely less awful once the quilt has been washed)
- you use tons of thread
- pinning with pins at an inch apart seems to work but is really tedious
- I need a walking presser foot
Because the fabric kept sliding, I ended up re-pinning the quilt twice and I'm pretty surprised that it turned out as rectangular as it did. I wonder if sticking the fabrics together with Spray Mount would work? Does anyone have any suggestions for this problem?
So seeing as I'm not about to dash off to the airport, I shall now retire to the kitchen table and cut out a onesie for Baby S instead.
Happy Thursday!
