I managed to finish this quilt before the deadline and I am so relieved. Plus, I really like how the Plus Quilt came out. It was a fun challenge to have the "blind date" fabric swap and then round out the prints I received with things from my stash. It's funny too - I just squeaked in the basting and quilting over the holiday weekend before we left for vacation in Alaska. Then binding the quilt yesterday I had a new appreciation for the animal prints with moose and bear!
For the backing I used a solid blue Kona with a strip of scraps from the front across the middle.
This was my first time with spray basting - I had a hard time with it largely for the same reason I have trouble basting anything larger than a crib quilt. I don't really have a nice big space to tape down the backing. Anyway, I worked up quite a sweat smoothing out all the wrinkles and I was worried there would be some unsightly puckers. So I did a free quilting meander - only my second time, so it was good for practicing that skill anyway. But I'd imagined a straight line quilting pattern beforehand. Anyway, I didn't have any puckers to speak of, and with the washing and drying all would have been forgiven by the end. I do like this look a lot though, but I guess it isn't everyone's favorite.
Just a little more detail... and below the whole enchilada!
I used some of the green and yellow print scraps for binding. Another new skill attempt with mixed results - machine binding. hmmm. I would start with slightly wider strips next time (I used 2.5") so that more will fold over the back because I had to go back and re-stitch and couldn't really stitch in the ditch to catch the back of the binding. So I think the binding looks pretty sloppy, but I wanted to make sure it would hold up to some abuse once it reaches a child in Romania. To be honest, this is the second time I did a machine binding, and I will probably go back to hand stitching the backside. Between all the pinning I did and the going back to restitch it didn't feel like any time savings was worth the sacrifice in aesthetics. Maybe if I learn to do this from someone who really knows how I will change my mind though.
Anyway, I hope I can link this up to Sarah's Whoop Whoop! for the week - but since it's Saturday and not Friday we'll see! Go over there anyway to check out some more impressive posts from creative geniuses!
