Quilt colic?

I posted this picture on Instagram with the caption: "Working on a quilt I don't love. It might get better." What's not to love?

I started the quilt in a class, using this gorgeous fabric, Morris Meadows. I love the colors, and the art deco design. I already had a yard in my stash, and I ordered another yard online from Loom in Pittsburgh so I'd have enough for the class project. 

There was a lot of fussy cutting with a special ruler, resulting in a lot of wasted fabric. Boo. And I wasn't thrilled with my arrangements of the resulting pieces; I wished I'd featured more of the floral edge. After cutting apart and sewing back together, I thought I might as well have simply bought a fabric printed like this. It helped me realize I really do prefer scrappy quilting. I like seeing what happens when lots of fabrics are combined, instead of using one fabric, or one designer's collection of fabrics.

The addition of quilting added another dimension to the little quilt, as did some more favorite fabric from stash for a border. It's getting a little likable. However, as I quilted a cable in the border, the bobbin thread ran out with two inches to go! 

And even though I laid out the binding on the quilt before stitching it on, I ended up with a seam in the corner. Out came the seam ripper, and the binding was cut and resewn before sewing onto the quilt. This quilt is testing me!

 

Here it sits, ready for the binding to be hand sewn to the back. I like to do that while watching TV in the evening with my husband. It might have to wait until summer programming begins. 

Edited: Red Box to the rescue! Rented a movie and sewed the binding. Ralph doesn't understand why those two go together, but I get antsy just sitting in front of the TV. (Movie was Still Alice, sweet movie, but always with the sense that the actors were telling a story, rather than making believable characters. Just as well, since it would have been super-emotional if I'd connected with them, and I resent being emotionally manipulated by movies.)

Here's a detail of the quilting. It probably wouldn't matter what I did, since the fabric is so busy! Orange peel in the center, sweet cable in the border.

Here's the finished quilt!

Okay, I'm feeling a little love for this little one, now. 40x48" Maybe someone else will like a sophisticated, art deco baby quilt.