Quilted and Bound

Pinned pattern for the border

I had a very productive Labor Day weekend:  I finished quilting and bound the quilt!  (Well, I still have the hand-stitching left.) 

The border quilting went pretty quickly, once I figured out I could sew the pattern down the side as one long continuous line.  I used the pins as a guide, and stitched from pin to pin.  I was amazed when I completed the last bit of the border.  I had layered the fabric for quilting over five months ago and I was beginning to wonder if would ever be finished.

The binding took some work to correctly piece the two colors of blue so that the darker blue lined up in the corners.  But once I figured that out, it took no time at all to sew it on.  Trimming the quilt was so exciting; I loved seeing those nice clean sides after months of ragged edges.

Trimming the edges

At this point, I submitted the entry form for the Topsfield Fair.  I still have the hand-work to do:  trimming all of the threads, hand-stitching the binding to the back of the quilt, creating and sewing on the label, and stitching on a sleeve so it can be displayed at the fair.  But I can easily complete all that in the next week or so - plenty of time to bring it to the fair in three weeks.