Completed Gypsy Wife Quilt

If you’ve kept up, I kind of disappeared after Christmas.  The dang sew-jo just went pfffft and was gone.  But, I’ve been slowly revving it back up during the last couple weeks.  One of the things that has helped me recover it was quilting and binding my Gypsy Wife quilt!  It's been a year since I started (the QAL started last February), and I can pretty much say I enjoyed the entire process.  It's a rare project that doesn't get to the "hate" part of the love-hate-love cycle.  

At first I was waffling on how to quilt it. Originally, horizontal lines.  Then, fancy quilting because I could.  Then, what type of fancy quilting, maybe simple was best.  Then, and I thought this was the winner, ditch quilt the blocks and horizontal lines on the background strips.  That was it.  And then I started quilting. 

The very first line I sewed right over the block (that I was supposed to ditch/outline stitch).  Whoops.  Oh well, that decision was made, and it just meant the quilt was quilted faster.  I am not one to rip out unless it’s really bad. 

It was quilted over a weekend, marking with a hera marker (pretty sweet), and the binding took a week.  I decided to hand bind in case I enter it in the fair.  I’ve been machine binding everything lately, and it is so much faster (if not quite as pretty from the back).  The hand binding has been exceptionally slow, and revealing in that I really do need to find a thimble that works for me.  I've tried several different kinds, but I guess I need to try a few more. 

Love the decision to go with low-volume strips.  This quilt makes me so happy!  The dark plum binding does not photograph true at all (it's really not brownish).  This next photo probably shows it the closest (also in the raccoon block and a couple others).  

Anyways, back to the subject at hand, my beautimous quilt!  I love her!  She is wild and crazy, and I’m so glad to have my own couch quilt.  The star block is probably my favorite, although I love that rainbowtized HST block beside it as well. 

My husband thinks the Amy Butler backing print is “old lady”.  That just goes to show what he knows.  Pattern matching is a pain, but it turned out great.

She's already been snuggled on the couch and makes that sad hand-me-down so much brighter!  

Thanks to Michelle for starting the QAL last year!