Of Contractions, Angler Fish and Quilting

I'm having a fake contraction right now. Fake in that it's not a real labor contraction, but my uterus is doing perhaps the equivalent of a slow motion bicep curl, in preparation for the real thing. I'd never heard of these practice contractions (fancy name: Braxton Hicks) before pregnancy. They started in late 2nd trimester - I thought it was the fetus curling into a tense ball. Now that the baby is, apparently, as long as a stalk of Celery - oh my bad, we're on Leek week now - it is as if Medusa glanced over and hardened my abdomen into a watermelon sized rock. The uterus is like a wide rubber band around the fetus, my OB says. So during these contractions, my abdomen distorts from a relatively symmetrical spherical mound into a landscape of two hillocks (which I've decided are the right shoulder and butt) with a steep side (the back) and a gentle slope leading to a valley of arms and knees, fetal position of course. The feet stick out of my right side, like the tail of a male deep sea angler fish after it has fused itself to its mate (if you don't know about angler fish mating habits, look it up, it's fascinating.)

All that aside, I've finished my windowpane quilt! I did not document in progress - with the end in sight, it was hard to pause during the throes of sewing to take pictures. Plus, I'm under a deadline here, and wanted to get on with things. In brief:
- I pieced together the front, and then the back (see below). I'd decided to add a quilted stripe made of some excess fabric. The green dot fabric is flannel.
- Sandwiched a sheet of batting (insulating material, like thick felt) between front and back
- Sewed through a 3 layers to hold everyone in place (about 5 parallel vertical rows of stitching between the squares and 6 rows horizontal)
- Trimmed all over so all 3 pieces were same size
- Made fabric tape (that blue edging, no it's not sticky like tape tape) with my tape maker
- Wrapped tape around all edges, pinned down and sewed on

 

It's not totally straight, but I am fine with that. I'd say this was my most challenging quilt thus far. Of course I'm keeping it, it's for my kid. A shame about my swollen hands - they complained bitterly throughout these final stages, especially when forced to use the seam ripper, or to tie knots in thread. If I didn't have hand issues perhaps I could whip out a few more quilts and such - especially now that My Edits are Done!!