Goldie's quilt is finished.......

...washed, dried, and awaiting a label. 













 I took the finished top and my basting frame to the senior center on Tuesday for the regular monthly get-together.  But somebody forgot to tell me that they weren't coming !  So I had the entire big room to myself, and got the top basted in 2 hours.  So glad to have the use of the room, if not the good company to go with it.

Finished top awaiting basting.

 

 

I like to wait until the quilt has shrunk all that it is going to before I apply the label, since it doesn't get quilted.  That way, the quilt doesn't shrink AWAY from the label, causing the label to look buckled and poofy.

Finished size of the quilt is 48 x 72 inches.   After photographing the nearly complete quilt top, I realized that I would like for it to be a little bit wider........but it didn't need any additional length.  So, rather than piece an additional row of blocks, or border it all the way around, I just added borders to the two sides of the quilt.  And, I must say, I like the look ! 

I struggled with a quilting design, trying several ideas and removing a LOT of tiny quilting stitches.  Finally, I settled on using the walking foot to quilt across the blocks, and then using the darning foot to freemotion-quilt feathers in the outside borders.  They don't show, but they filled up the space.

Have I mentioned before how much I like it when a machine-applied binding goes smoothly?   I use a SLEW of pins to make sure that the stitching doesn't slip off of the fold, and it takes a bit of extra time, but nothing like as long as hand-stitching.  

I like the addition of the black and white fabrics to the multi-colors of the blocks. 




















I used the cow print for the binding and for the backing and a white tiger print for the borders.  The quilt has a batting comprised of 20 % polyester/ 80% cotton. 

 
I spoke to Goldie yesterday and she sounded great.  I haven't told her that I was making her a quilt.  I don't know about you guys, but nothing stops me in my tracks like promising something before it is made, or coming up on a deadline.  So, I hope to take the quilt over to her tomorrow and surprise her.  It'll be nice to see her.....she's been missed.