the quilt-y gift

I haven't yet gifted the quilt I made for my newest great-niece...

MyLifeIsAStitch.blogspot.com

This quilt started as a really cute panel. 

A really cute panel that was sooooo very narrow, 
and not a good size for a baby quilt.
And I had NONE of the coordinating fabrics 
that came in the panel fabric line.
What to do??

I decided to make side panels 
to help bring it closer to square 
than the narrow, banner-like start.
To do this, I made individual 'flower' Lil Twister blocks 
(with white cutting backgrounds), hand-appliqued circles to the flowers' centers, 

MyLifeIsAStitch.blogspot.com

then hand-appliqued stems and leaves, too.
I finished it with a darker pink border
that's a little wider than the  green border in the original panel. 

MyLifeIsAStitch.blogspot.com

I used bright, lime green Minkee for the backing:

MyLifeIsAStitch.blogspot.com

and quilted it using inspiration from the panel design for my quilting.
And though the color saturation isn't good in the following picture,
it does show my free-hand quilting lines:

MyLifeIsAStitch.blogspot.com

I finished the quilting (with my great-nieces' name and birth date) 
the morning after she was born, and did the binding that night.
Now I just need to get to see her (and cuddle some, too)!

I usually gift and then share the pictures,
but decided to share first this time.
Do you share pictures of quilt-y gifts
BEFORE you gift??

I'm off to do some more stitching -
Thanks for stopping by and
Happy Stitching!
Debra