My first finished quilt-along

It’s amazing what you can accomplish when you aren’t in your own house.

At home, when the kids are sleeping, there’s a million things to do (laundry, dishes, etc.) and a million things to just plain distract me (computer, DVR, other sewing projects).  But when you’re at your in-laws’ house and the kids are passed out and your in-laws are the fairly sedate type?  You can just hand-sew that binding like it’s your job.  And that’s what I did.

And barely more than 24 hours later, I had this:

That’s right, the ORBCo quilt is finished!  I’m really happy with it.  The fabrics are crazy and groovy and bright and happy. I credit a fellow quilt-along-er for inspiration on the added border, which I like a lot, in part because it makes it easy to find the top/bottom of the quilt. The swirly pink quilting is really subtle on the front, and really just adds some texture without taking away from the pattern itself.  It’s delightfully soft and crinkly after a nice run through the washer and dryer.

I am super, super happy with the back.  With such a loud front, I’m glad I went with a cool, simple back.  The pink thread shows up quite a bit on the dark gray backing (Kona Cotton in Coal), and the slightly-off-center strip (leftover squares from the original strip sets on either side of a few inches of the Wallflower print) pops out really nicely.

The binding is more of the pink/gray Wallflower print with some extra solid gray.  I had around a half yard left over of each after making the front borders and the backing, and I really didn’t want to have to buy any more fabric for the binding.  I needed about nine strips for it, and got seven out of the Wallflower, so just threw in some gray here and there.  I think it works.

I’m not sure what the post-washing dimensions are, but pre-washing it was about 71″ x 91″.  A very generous twin and the largest quilt I have ever made.  I have to say I am really proud of it.

The quilt-along itself was a lot of fun.  The week-by-week instructions were good for new folks, and the Flickr group was a ton of fun to see what other people were doing and exchange stories and advice and compliments and encouragement. In fact, everyone had such a great time that they’re starting another quilt-along: a zig-zag!  I’m sorely tempted, but I think I really need to stick to the rest of the items on my to-do list at the moment.  So many quilts, so little time…

At any rate, I’m thrilled that it’s done. I have no idea what I’m going to do with it, now, especially seeing that there are no twin-sized beds in my house. But that’s really a very minor concern, don’t you think?