Animal ABCs finish

Animal ABCs has been quilted, bound and washed. It's ready to be donated to Project Linus and cheer up a little girl or boy. The top was completed back in March, so this one was long overdue!

I bound it using prepackaged 2" wide satin blanket binding in this pretty variegated rainbow colorway. Instead of sewing it on the standard way, which makes a very wide binding, I doubled it up and used a half inch seam allowance, sewing onto the back then folding over to the front. The binding on the back is 0.5" wide.

Here it is on the front, which ended up about 0.75" wide. Leaving it 2" would have covered too much of the edges of the quilt blocks. I machine stitched it to the front very close to the binding edge.

I did wavy line quilting on this one because I wanted a quick finish with nice texture. I installed my walking foot and did a single wavy line, which puckered and pulled and fought me, no matter how slowly and carefully I tried. Ugh! I decided to try using my free motion foot instead. Perfect! Each line went twice as fast, and ten times more smoothly. No puckers at all, and only a few bobbles as I moved my hands. That's it; from now on I'm doing all my wavy quilting with the FMQ foot! (Not to be confused with Sean's feet, which I decided not to crop out of the photo.)

This shot of the back shows the quilting a little better, plus those cute circus animal butts! The fact that they are all wearing formal tail coats makes me smile. I think I have enough of this fabric for one more quilt back, plus the eBay seller has another chunk of it at a great price. I should go snap that up.

Gratuitous "tossed casually over a patio chair" shot. I'll never be a world class quilt blogger, because I have no patience or talent for taking decent photos. I'd rather spend my energy quilting!

Some of the animals on this fabric were a bit unusual: vampire bat, iguana, jelly fish, newt! I wonder if it was made in Australia? Each animal, no matter how poisonous or dangerous, is drawn in a happy, harmless style, though. The dizzy, cross-eyed bat is one of my favorites.

Quail has a bit of an attitude. Note the eye roll. 

Now I have three little quilts ready for Project Linus: Cat Family Portrait, Charming Cupcakes, and Animal ABCs. I'll be bringing these with me to California next week. I'll hand them off to Donna, my friend who takes them to the meetings. I've never actually attended a meeting, but the Alameda chapter graciously allowed me to join as their "member at large." Living full-time on the boat means we're never anywhere long enough to join geographically-based groups, especially ones that only meet monthly or quarterly. So having a chapter accept me in absentia is wonderful! Donna emails me to report that the Alameda PL ladies enjoy my quilts, and they've all been so supportive of my quilting journey. It really means a lot to me to hear that feedback!

Linking up with Finish It Up Friday over on Crazy Mom Quilts.