It’s Finished!

I’m SO excited … the chevron quilt is finally finished!  Woo hoo!  I finished up the quilting Friday evening … I spent the majority of Saturday making and sewing on the binding.  I’d forgotten how looooong it takes to sew down the binding to the back.But it’s done!  I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to get it washed and dried before gifting it to DD … I was surprised to see that it (barely) fit in our washer, but I had a difficult time drying it in our dryer … it kept balling up so only parts were drying.  I finally got it dry enough.Unfortunately, the lighting wasn’t conducive for color accuracy … it’s raining so there’s not a lot of natural light coming in the windows.  I normally have DH hold my quilts over the deck railing, but the rain is making that impossible.  I’m hoping for a brief break from the rain so I can get a shot outside (even if it’s not sunny).  Overall, I’m very pleased with how the quilt turned out … even if it’s not fabrics or pattern that I would have chosen and in spite of all the difficulties I had with this quilt.  I can’t wait to see it on DD’s bed with these pillows I had my sister make. 

Friday, on our “road trip”, I found fabrics that have met with T#1’s approval for his spiral log cabin quilt.Once again the colors aren’t accurate … the red and blue are both more muted and the off-white isn’t as white.     We then headed over to St. Louis to visit a shop that advertises that they have among the largest inventory of extra wide backing fabrics in the nation.  Not hardly!  What a disappointment.  Since we were already in St. Louis, we took a detour to a third quilt shop where I signed up for a class … I’ve mentioned several times that selecting fabrics is very difficult for me.  Part of my “problem” is that I prefer muted colors, especially the classics – blues, reds, neutrals.  But I just don’t have an eye for choosing colors and patterns.  I admire quilts made from colors that I would never think of using, so I’d like to be able to expand my color horizon.    The class I’m taking won’t be using the color wheel or any technical tools … it’s designed to expand the eye to color and what we like and why.  While there, I bought some thread for T#1’s quilt … a blue and a variegated blue.  I’ve always been anxious to try variegated thread and thought that it might work well for this quilt.  I used YLI hand quilting thread on the chevron quilt, but YLI doesn’t have any variegated hand quilting threads nor do they have a blue that (at least online … I can’t find a local source for their thread) looks like it would work well for his quilt.    So I’m going to give Aurifil hand quilting thread a try.    It wasn’t until I got home that I realized that I had failed to even think about looking at storage for the sewing room closet.  By then I was gung ho on trying to finish up the chevron, so I put that off for another day. 

There will be no slow stitching today as I am anxious to get started on cutting strips for the spiral log cabin.  In case you all have forgotten, here’s my inspiration:I don’t plan to use borders on mine … my strips will be 1.5” wide, and I want to maximize the spiral effect.

Hope you all have a spectacular Sunday!
Kathy