Flowers, a Finish

Flowers is a Linda Brannock pattern and was offered as a sewalong hosted on a Facebook group from mid-2018 through the end of January, 2019.  And now, finally, it's finished (as of August 23).  It was a grey and windy day when I took these first two photos.  Sadly, I forgot my Canon digital camera so used my phone.  Not ideal but you get the idea.

I finished the blocks and the triangle squares for the sashing and borders then edited the pattern to make the quilt larger.  It didn't work.  The top had a time out while I decided what to do.  I finally unstitched and restitched following Linda's original pattern.  (Why, oh why do I imagine I can come up with a better way than the creator of a quilt pattern?!)  In the end, the only change in my finished quilt from the original pattern was that I increased the width of the border by an inch or so.  Now I'm satisfied with it.  

It took a while to decide on a quilting pattern.  I eventually chose diagonal lines at less than 45 degrees.  As the quilting progressed and I had to mark the lines as I went, I was concerned about having wavy lines across the quilt.  I don't think that happened.  Then as I was nearing the end of the quilting, I was thinking how much the quilting made it look like a mattress pad or a manufactured quilt.  I think the appliqued flowers help avoid that look.

I used a Mountain Mist 80 cotton/20 polyester batt which is puffier than some other cotton/poly battings I've used.  It may be one of the thickest bats I've quilted and makes the diagonal lines stand out.  It was easy to quilt through and did not beard.  It seems like it will be warm and cozy to sleep under.

One thing I learned from this quilt is that I should not use light quilting thread when the backing is a dark fabric, and vice versa, until my hand quilting is better.   (Will it ever improve?!)

The quilt top measured 84¼" x 62¼".  After quilting it measured 80 3/4" x 61¼".  And after washing and drying it measured 77" x 57 3/4".  All that to say the quilt lost 6" in length and 4½" in width.  It makes me think I need to make quilt tops larger than I want them to be when finished, but who can know how much larger when there's no standard shrinkage?

My favorite block of the whole quilt is the one with these three tiny, 3½" x 4", imperfect baskets.  I think they are adorable.

I'm linking this post to
> Finished or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts
> Oh Scrap! at Quilting is more fun than Housework
> Peacock Party at Wendy's Quilts and More
> Can I Get a Whoop Whoop? at Confessions of a Fabric Addict
> Beauties Pageant at from bolt to beauty
Thank you for hosting, ladies.

--Nancy.