And it’s finished!

I had to wait a few weeks until Ruth’s longarm was open and available.Here is the quilt, loaded on the machine, one large backing that I ordered from Connecting Threads, when I ordered they had a number of large backing fabrics on sale, for $8 instead of $12. That was a nice saving. With a quilt this large I didn’t want to piece the back.I put so much time and effort into this quilt top, and it’s busy! So I needed to simply the quilting, not an easy thing for me to do. I have been watching Angela Walters Midnight quilt show, she shares great quilting ideas, in this episode, she shared a woodgrain design, and that is what I went with.5 hours, that is all it took, from loading to unloading the quilt, with a break for lunch. Not bad at all for a queen size quilt.Here it is, off the frame and draped over it so you can see how extensive and large the quilt is. I absolutely love the quilting, it ties everything together but doesn’t overwhelm the pineapple pattern.Trying to capture the whole quilt on the ground. I was considering piecing together the binding, but once again, I felt that would be too much. This is a very busy scrap quilt. Having one unifying binding would pull everything together. Luckily I had bought a large piece of fabric on sale, I think at the time I thought I’d use part of it in the backing.Ironing the binding folding over.It’s a good thing I have this large pergola to hand my quilts from. Even so, this one is dragging on the ground.  You can see how different a quilt looks when you can photograph it straight on.

I’m in love, Ruth said the same thing, had I not finished quilting in one day I may have come back to an empty frame since she wanted to steal it. A glimpse at the backing fabric. I really lucked out, on sale and it fits the quilt top perfectly.A closer look at the chickens. I quilted more detail on them, I really tried to emphasize the eyes with quilting. Then I echoed around, so they stand out from the background.  Another chance to see how pleasing that background quilting is. Outlines and echoed the bees. I did add antennae with the quilting, not that it’s that visible. Then for my reward, I got stung this weekend by a bee. A neighbor had a beehive on his fence, no he’s not doing anything about it, even though we told him that I got stung. People!The name was pretty easy to come up with. Leigh raises chicken, bees, and veggies in her garden. Maybe some of the pineapples can represent some lettuce or beans.

It’s done!!  I am going to machine wash and dry it because that way Leigh will know that it can be laundered. Nothing delicate or sacred about it. Then on to take some ‘artistic’ pictures, share with my guild and off in the mail it will go.

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