Done! Done! Done!

Eight years in the making, the two Otsego (oversized) twin-bed quilts are finished!  So many lessons learned in this quilting journey from total novice.  Even at the end, between quilts #1 and #2, I learned a lot.

For example, with borders such as these (not mitered and quilted separately), quilt the shorter borders first, so they can nudge the longer ones back from the seam if necessary.  That way you don't end up with a fold along the seam line.  Even though I was using a walking foot and had measured the borders carefully, the weirdness of the (unintentionally) wonky blocks caused a lot of fabric build-up along the way -- build-up that even the walking foot couldn't compensate for.

No SilkPurse from This Sow's Ear!

If you remember, I designed these quilts in a program (kind of like EQ, but available for a Mac; I've since abandoned it for EQ8, now available for Macs).  Anyway, I didn't know what a flying goose was, and just bumbled along.  Cutting and sewing were rather poor.  When it came time to stitch-in-the-ditch along the first border, the fabric gathered badly along the flying geese (among other places).

Although I pre-washed all the fabrics in these quilts, I like to think (hope!) that the wrinkles, puckers and pleats will just add to the homey, hand-made feeling.  I tried mightily to smooth everything out, but my efforts were mostly in vain.

For the binding I chose a dark red that fits with the reds in the quilt top (though darker) and works nicely with the ladybugs in the backing.

This is the first time that I machine-stitched both sides of the binding, and I hate it!  The edges on the back are uneven (of course, I picked a nice area to photograph!).  Parts of the backing and even the batting poked through, and I had to rip out about 50% or more of the backing and re-stitch it.  Arghhh!  Thought I was saving time...  not!

In any event, everything is as done as it's going to get.  I *LOVE* this backing fabric.  If it were up to me, I'd probably put the backing side up!

I plan to whip up a couple of pillow shams with the leftover fabric, and then ship everything off to my brother and sister-in-law to haul up to the cabin in the spring.  By then I'll probably be over the detail-angst and will be excited to photograph the quilts on the beds.

On to the next adventure!