My UFO 9-Patch is finished and a UFO no more! and my Spring to Finish Challenge Final Report Card

Here it is...my UFO 9-Patch finished and a UFO no more! It is my second finish for the Spring to Finish Challenge from Jacqui at Tallgrass Prairie Studio and I got it done just in time-today is the end of the Challenge!Its fairly simply quilted but thanks to Debbie from Jerusalem Notes: Fiberwork from Debbie's comment I did add these little feathers in the light triangles. I auditioned several patterns for this space and wasn't happy with any until this one...funny little feathers aren't they. Actually for some reason they make me think of crabs (and scorpions-which isn't such a nice thought so I'm trying to forget that one!).
I just had to share the back...a few years ago a friend gave me several sample panels of barkcloth from her upholstery fabric store. I always knew I'd use them on the back of a quilt and have been waiting for just the right one. I just love contrast of the vibrant back with the very quiet front of the quilt. You can actually see the quilted cable in the border better from the back than the front.
I wish I could just free sew feathers like I see others do but I'm not there yet...so I used a stencil and my favorite washable graphite marker from Morgan Quality Products...I actually own two of these because if I ever lost one I'd go nuts!
A special thanks to Karen of Quilts,etc....I tried her machine zigzagging of quilt batting pieces and it worked like a dream. You can see the two batts are perfectly abutted together with no overlapping at all and this was so much faster than my old by hand way!
Now its time to give you my report card for this Challenge...I'm a very generous marker and I give myself a B+. I had 3 projects listed:.

1. Finish the String Quilt-done!

2. Finish the UFO 9-Patch top and quilt it-done!

3. Quilt my Black ,White and Red log cabin quilt - I've taken the top and backing fabric out of the closet...that's it-all I have to report.

So why am I giving myself a B+ instead of a C...well I did some extra credit work! :) I finished the two pillows that had been hanging around for quite a while!

Now I'm hopping over to Tallgrass Prairie Studio to see all the fabulous finishes for the Spring to Finish Challenge!

String Quilt Finished with Knife Edge Binding

Tada! Finally, my string quilt full size quilt is finished and I love it...and more importantly so does DS!Here's a close-up. I machine quilted loopty-loops in the red areas and on the sashing and straight line 1/4" outline style quilting on the strings.
All folded up and ready to go to its new home...DS's apartment!
Here's a close-up of the Knife Edge finish I used....I didn't want a black binding and I had no red fabric left so I decided to finish the quilt this way. Its a technique I learned from an unknown quilter...the quilter that made my vintage red and yellow tumbling blocks quilt and I thought I'd share with you how I did it.
Putting on this binding is like adding another border to a quilt...it is not a continuous binding.

I prepared my binding strips for the top and bottom of the quilt exactly the same way I would a border-only its a 1" border!

You can see the binding pinned onto the quilt...notice the pressed down edge-I pressed 1/4" of the long edge of the binding strip for ease when sewing it to the back.
Binding machine sewed on with a 1/4" seam.

I then pulled the entire binding to the back (including the seam allowance-the whole thing!) and pinned.
Here you can see how it looks from the front as I pulled the binding to the back and pinned. Once completely pinned, I sewed the top and bottom bindings to the back of the quilt by hand-the whole idea is that nothing shows on the front so you kind of have to sew the binding to the back by hand.

Now for the side bindings. They're almost exactly the same...the exception is that I cut them 1/2" longer than I would have if they really were a border for the quilt so I could fold under 1/4" of the short sides. This way there will be no raw edges when I finish the binding.
Next I pinned the side binding on....you can see that the top binding is completely finished and I've aligned the short folded edge of the new binding to the finished edge of the quilt.
View of side binding sewn on from the front of the quilt...
View of side binding sewn on from the back of the quilt. (See how I sewed over the finished binding.)
I then pulled the side bindings completely to the back, pinned and sewed by hand...and that's it-a machine sewn (well, mostly) knife edge finish!

While not my regular binding choice, I have used this on other quilts when it just seemed the perfect finish.

This is my second finish for the String Quilt Challenge and my first finish for the Spring to Finish Challenge 2010.

I'm also linking to Finished for Friday and Sew and Tell. Hop on over and see all the wonderful finishes!

Spring to Finish Challenge

I just heard about the Spring to Finish Challenge hosted by Jacquie at Tallgrass Prairie Studio...its just perfect for me! I've already gotten started on the 9-patch UFO blocks.

Here's my list of to-dos:

1. Finish quilting DS's String quilt (for the String Quilt Challenge!).

2. Finish the 9-patch quilt top and quilt it.

3. Quilt another quilt top that's in my closet (not sure yet which one but I'm thinking either another little string baby quilt or the black, white and red log cabin I did for the Black and White Challenge ).

I like this...use this challenge to finish up the fun projects from earlier challenges....would you say I need the encouragement of challenges?

If you do too, just use the link above...its not to late to join!

And to show how badly I need this boost, here's a photo of what I've quilted on DS's quilt so far...One long diagonal row. and now I'm not sure that DS will like the red quilting on the black sashes...it was just so much easier to just keep going down the row with the same quilting! :) He's coming this week-end so I'll found out soon enough (hmm, maybe I'd better work on another project til then.)

It was very hard to take a picture...the quilting only showed up in this close-up. You can see the whole quilt top her