June UFO Done!

I had to get one of my UFO's quilted before the end of June. 

So far this year, I've managed to get at least one moldy oldie finished up and I hate to mess up a good thing! 

Daisy Days: pattern and fabric by Lynette Jensen/Thimbleberries.
Surprisingly, even though this was pieced ages ago and I'm not a big Thimbleberries fan these days, I still really like this one. I wish I could style it like the quilts in Lynette's beautiful books--too bad the gale force winds today wouldn't cooperate.

The back is also a Thimbleberries fabric from a different design line.
It was on sale and the colors were perfect!
The cross hatching I used in the setting triangles went pretty fast, but when it came to the outer border, it seemed to take ages--I also needed to do some fancy fudging to meet up at the beginning--whew. The daisy "bouquet" blocks (oooh--fussy cutting!) are quilted with a loose feather wreath.

I had to wash the quilt as soon as I got the binding on this morning. It was loaded with Miracle Chalk from marking all the cross hatching. I had also used  Crayola washable markers to mark the feathers and was terrified the marker wouldn't come out. I was desperate for something I could see, so I took a chance and used a purple one. I know--crazy! I sprayed those areas with Shout and washed it on a delicate cycle: purple marker gone--yay!! The quilt is so cozy and crinkly now--perfect for a cool summer evening.

I have to fess up--I finished the binding by machine. To do that, I attached the binding on the back and brought it around to the front. On my Bernina, I use my #20 foot (because it has a groove on the bottom). The blanket stitch I use on my 440 is #45 reversed. I set the stitch length at 3.5 and the width at 3.6 and move my needle all the way to the left. Then I can ride the inner left edge of the foot right along the folded edge of the binding. I use a stylus as I sew. The thread is King Tut--a variegated blue/green.

I sewed my corners by hand about an inch and a half in either direction before I did the machine sewing. I like my corners to be neat and it's pretty tricky to get a nice one while trying to wrangle the quilt under the machine. I sew the little fold closed by hand also.

I admit the back isn't so beautiful, but for a quilt that will be dragged around and used, I can live with that!

I told myself at the end of  May that I would start quilting something at the beginning of June so I would NOT be stressing out at the end of the month wondering if I could get a UFO done in time, but---here I am on the 29th day of a 30 day month---best laid plans and all that--haha!