A wee bit o' quilting

My oh my! This quilt is coming along so nicely I might not want to give it away! Well I'm kidding of course, it will be leaving my hands when finished, but I am enjoying this one a lot.

I managed to piece a backing (which I made an inch too small, darn it!), pin baste, and quilt this guy all in one evening. I am crafty, hear me roar. Seriously it was quite an evening. I learned a few things:

Lesson #1: Be sure to smooth out quilt top really well before using it to gauge how big backing needs to be. Especially on carpet.

Lesson #2: I wish we had our hardwood floors back so I could tape the backing down and keep everything nice and taut while basting. It works out on carpet ok, but I'd still feel better.

Lesson #3: Yeah for the longest stitch length on my sewing machine. FAST.

The quilting is simple, but I think this simple top should have simple quilting. I used diagonal lines through the linen squares, leaving the prints alone and alternating gray and yellow thread. This creates a nice pattern framing the blocks of prints and adding some interest with the different colors. Some blocks have a gray X, some a yellow X, and the rest have one gray and one yellow cross bar. Neat.

All that's left is the binding. The cupcake is sitting on the shelf all ready to go! When we get back from vacation that's my first order of business at the card table.