Finished!!

 It was happy-hour last night at 11:30 when I put the last stitch in the binding and sleeve of the custom quilt. It is so beautiful and sweet; I love it! Thank you to Audrey for giving me such a lovely gift of time and talent by making the top for me. I enjoyed every minute of the quilting, all done free motion and without a plan. I just started in quilting and didn't stop until I reached the bottom. A true  Zen experience.

Straight way this morning I had Mr Wazoo hold the quilt next to a window so you could see the quilting better. It's a bit dark in my living room in the morning, so it doesn't look as white as it really is, but you'll see that later.

I quilted the entire center and blue border as I went along, then started at the top and quilted the borders top to bottom without rolling the quilt up and down at all. When I reached the bottom, I was done!

The piano keys aren't perfectly spaced because there wasn't a ruler involved. I eyeballed them.

No rulers here, either. I drew the circles and went from there. Lots of stitch in the ditch, but all freehand.

Here is the back. I freely admit, I quilted more densely than usual, but I was certainly enjoying the process. After months of pantographs, it was cathartic.

Audrey embroidered the label and I added the names and date.

I took down the big chicken quilt and hung my new one in its place.

Happy, happy, joy, joy!!

Meanwhile, Customer work goes on and I am trying to get these done so I can be free to explore all the quilts I want to create. This one is a panel from the same customer with the Ten Commandments quilt.

She requested an animal motif panto to enhance the Noah's ark design

The panto is Animal Crackers, with giraffes, lions and elephants.

The backing is the same fabric as the outer border.

I really needed a little retail therapy today, so I went to Hiawassee for some aboriginal fabric for a quilt I am itching to make. I have a good collection of Aussie fabrics but don't have the lighter, brighter ones I needed to make the quilt sing. Stay tuned to see what happens!