Another March Quilt Finish

Whew! I got this one in just under the wire, didn’t I?  It was my goal to finish my Rainbow Dresdens, the last of my 2016 Rainbow Scrap Challenge projects, before the end of the first quarter of 2017 because I wanted to include it in my first quarter totals (six quilts finished). Yay! I did it! But I have had a love-hate relationship with this quilts since its inception, and its finishing was no different.

Have you ever tried to quilt over lacy cotton doilies? If not, don’t. No matter how careful you are, they get caught in the presser foot. So, you will see from the back of the quilt that I eventually gave up quilting in that area. If the doily was smooth (not crocheted), it was minimally quilted.

Here is a picture of what one of the squares looked like from the back. It had always been my intention to NOT use the same-old stippling for quilting. I wanted instead to outline each blade of every Dresden with a straight line stitching to echo the shape of the blade.  Well, that lasted less than one Dresden.... too much turning for these numb hands and sore shoulders. I had already spent a couple hours the day before in a Hazmat suit, cleaning up the downstairs bathroom shower, scrubbing it to within an inch of its life (and mine, apparently). Seriously, I have Thoracic Outlet Syndrome, where the nerves (etc) from the neck go through the a rather smallish opening in the  collar bone. I have to exercise my neck and arms regularly (and take anti-inflammatory meds) to control the numbness which occurs when I use my arms, hands, etc. too much (gardening, scrubbing, rotary cutting).  I needed to rest up a couple days before tackling this quilt, but I hadn’t. So, I resorted to the boring meander. And this damn quilt fought me every step of the way.

My favorite block. The doily was crocheted by my maternal great-grandmother .

After a couple days in Time Out (both me and the quilt), I was able to finish quilting it on Sunday, when cousin Kim came over to sew. And I offered it to her. It was not about to live in the same house with me. Luckily, she gladly accepted; she has always admired it. It got bound and washed up on Monday. The binding is a pastel window-pane fabric I’ve had in my stash for ages.

The quilt finished at 76x76” and is #2 on my list of Quarter I Finish-Along Goals.  It is my sixth finish this year, and it means that I’ve completed 6 of 7 of my goals. I’ll take it!

Naturally, I will link this to the 2017 First Quarter Link-up. And to those lovely ladies who are checking out all my finishes for the Finish-Along, all my finishes can all be accessed in my original goal list, linked in the paragraph above.

I’ll also be linking up to the Rainbow Quilt Parade at Angela’s So Scrappy blog at the end of the month.

Thanks for stopping by!