Abby's sunset quilt-complete

Welcome to finish it up Friday!

Abby's sunset quilt is complete! I LOVE the simplicity of this quilt. It's made of just plain squares and just solid fabrics, but it's anything but boring. Hurray!

This is a variation of my Hot and Cold quilt. (The original pattern can be found in my book No Scrap Left Behind.) I loved playing with the contrast of warm and cool colors again, but this time I wanted to let the colors mingle a bit more than the original, yet still be separate. (I talked about the construction of the quilt top in this post, if you care to read more about it.) I can only guess how many different colors are represented in this quilt top. (It's a LOT!) As with any scrap quilt, the more the better!

For the backing I used some of my good neighbor's yardage in this lovely lime green. I love how it looks like a field of flowers. A row of patchwork squares breaks up the repeat, so no fancy piecing is needed to match up the print exactly. (I did think about trying, but then I came to my senses. Phew!)

I quilted it on my Janome Horizon with a walking foot. Normally when I machine quilt, I use the same colored thread in the top and the bobbin. Why invite unnecessary trouble? Well, this time I decided to use two different colors of thread: green in the bobbin and silvery gray in the top. It's not perfect, but it's not an eye sore, either. In the end, I'm glad that I made that choice. The straight line quilting, however.....it's. not. easy. In fact, when I started quilting this on Saturday, I got soooooooo spun up and frustrated at how poorly I was quilting it. Thankfully I had enough good sense to walk away and take a break. (I normally don't!) The next day I assessed the situation again. When I showed my husband where I was going to pick out some stitches, he scolded me....and he even used my middle name!!! I guess I was being a little bit unreasonable. (what??!?!) Let me tell you, I have a perfectionist streak that runs DEEP and I got to stare it right in the face. (It wasn't pretty....sigh.) Anyway, I carried on and finished the quilting. It's definitely not perfect. I did go back and pick out some slightly crooked lines...and then I tried to let go of the rest. Again, not. easy. I know that some people say that if you can't see it from a galloping horse 10 feet away, then it's good enough. (That one always drives me crazy!) I certainly don't agree. Somewhere in the middle there has to be a happy medium, right?

I used two different colors of Kona cotton for the binding: cerise and dark violet. I used cerise for the top section, in the warm area, and the dark violet in the cool area. I was pleased that I could come up with a decent solution from the stash. I did all the hand binding in a marathon session...less than 4 hours. (I love to savor the binding process, but yesterday it was a race against the clock, and the sunset!)

When my daughter and I were taking photos it was CRAZY windy. Here are some of the outtakes...just for fun.

 

I LOVE how the front and the back look together!!!

At the end of the photoshoot, my daughter was holding the quilt and I thought it would be fun to add a quick snapshot of her, since the quilt IS named after her and all. I love this photo so much! She posed like that all on her own. :) I also love the fish house in the background and the little bit of sunset, too. It sure sums up a Minnesota winter!

The quilt measures 62" x 74" and it's scrap project #197. This is also my first completed quilt for my "salute to solids" challenge. (You can read more about that here.) It feels good to have one done!

 

Here's a few sunsets from the past few months, taken right outside my patio door. Of course a camera doesn't capture half of the awesomeness of the sunsets....but you have to try, right?

Alright! Now it's your turn! Please link up your finished projects for the week. Thank you, as always for reading, commenting and joining me for finish it up Friday! I sure appreciate it! Have a great and safe weekend. xo