Quickly about Quilting

I'm going to try to keep this short because Troy says it's my bedtime, but I can't wait to share this news....I finished the grey and orange quilt!!

Now backing up just a little, a couple weeks ago I was splitting wood on a Saturday morning when the sky got very dark (black). I finished up what I was working on, scooped up everything and made my way into the house quick. Less than 10 minutes later it was pouring. So I told myself, that's it for splitting wood today--go quilt a quilt. And I did.

Ok, faster, faster. I followed the seam with the foot while putting the needle to the far side of the opening:

 I did this on both sides of the zig zag stripe.

Then I put the needle in the middle and sewed in between the previous two rows.

In this way I sewed three stripes on each zig zag and ended up with quilting about 1" apart across the quilt. I did all the orange in the same light orange thread and all the grey/black in a light grey thread.

I got the quilting done that same day!! It was quite a long day, but I did take breaks. (But not long after stopping, I would look at the quilt and think, "I really want to get that done." And off I would go again.)

Then it was time for binding. I had purchased an ombre fabric which went from light grey/white at each selvage edge to grey/black in the center. I cut strips selvage-to-selvage to preserve the gradation and pieced them together with a bias seam:

With the splotchy colours, you can hardly find the seams. It's great. (I even managed to match the stripe colour when I sewed the beginning to the end when attaching it to the quilt!)

Once the binding was sewn onto the quilt, it was time for the hand sewing.

I got to try a new thimble I bought (if we're being honest) because it was less than a dollar and came in really bright fun colours. The colours went by sizes so I didn't really get to pick (since I had to pick the one that fit), but they were all fun so that's ok. Anyway, it's a plasticky, rubbery thimble and you would think that I wouldn't like it for that reason, but it worked really well. Soft enough and hard enough at the same time.

I really wanted to take the quilt with me last weekend for the drive to a family campout, but there was no room in the car. (Seriously no room.) So I finished it up this week. Last night, actually. Then I washed it and dried it and here it is!!

I'm just going to throw out some pictures because I'm sure you can figure it out. Front, back, detail shots, etc.

I am so excited to have this done and in time to enter it in the county fair!