Hey ho hey ho, it's off to quilt I go

Can you tell I'm catching up on the first season of Once Upon a Time?

All invigorated from actually finishing something (go go Henry Fish's pillowcase), I am enthusiastically tackling the next task - Princess' quilt, now finally named Sweetie Pie. We have a little game where I call her sweetie pie, then she says "I'm not a sweetie pie, YOU'RE a sweetie pie mummy" so I say that she is, and so on. It's very cute. And apt for the quilt.

The unanimous verdict was no batting (thanks for your help!), so I basted it up yesterday. No batting = money saved, which is alllll good in my world. I was pretty nervous about it stretching all over the place, so I spray basted it silly. The spray didn't work particularly well on the backing, but was sticky enough for me to smooth it nicely before pinning heaps. I then stitched in the ditch down the length of the fabric (ie the way the backing doesn't give) to make it stable. This seems to have worked because I'm now ditch stitching across and am pucker and stretch free so far (fingers crossed). I will then decide how to finish the quilting. It doesn't really show on the patterned fabrics or the back, so I will keep it quick and simple.

The quilt feels soooo snugly and delicious. I will absolutely use this backing again. It hasn't been nearly as disastrous as I anticipated. Although I am pretty sure Spotlight only has baby blue and this pink, so I don't think it will be going on hubby's zombie quilt. Heh.

And look, my first label. This wasn't a massive success for two reasons. First, I am a spaz and didn't iron the fusible web properly. I am too embarrassed to tell you the gory details, but let's just say the excessive steam meant the fabric marker blurred a bit. Then, and no surprise here, it didn't really stick to the backing. My blanket stitch around the edge didn't seem strong enough so then I did it again with a different stitch length. Blergh. I strategically decided I'm going for the rustic (aka sloppy) home sewn look. But I think I've sussed it, so hopefully better luck with the next one. Princess can't even read yet, so it won't bother her.