baste, quilt, repeat

Ooooof. That's pretty much how I've felt about basting this quilt. Wrestling all that fabric into alignment was a royal pain! I cut it a little close on the width of the backing which made it harder, but it is DONE. In the end it didn't take me too long to get the pins in once the layers were on the table. I got the center pinned up first and then it was easy to just kind of slide it around to each quadrant and work. It was good to have made the little chicken quilt in between to remind me that this step really isn't as bad as I always think it is. I mean, it's bad. Just that not that bad. So happy to get these last stages going on this one.

Because I really don't think I could wrestle this very well in my little sewing machine to quilt it I am hand quilting. My last hand quilting sojourn turned out really nice and didn't take super long, so I'm going to ride that wave right on over to this one. It may seem crazy to be hand quilting such a big quilt but I think it will turn out looking better and I'll have more fun too. I've got some pretty variegated turquoise, some navy, and some bright coral pearl cotton that will coordinate nicely. 

After just one evening of work I've got quite a bit done and I'm totally sure I made the right choice. It's looking good! Kepler thinks he could do a better job, but I really doubt the quality of the stitches he could get without thumbs. I think it's best he sticks to advising on where to put my lines rather than trying his own. He remains unconvinced. Maybe he can help with making binding?