Mystery Wall Quilt

I participated in a mystery QAL (quilt along) last spring and pieced together this wall hanging.  It then sat for several months until I had a chance to quilt and bind it.  I'm pleased with the result!

I started the quilting with a walking foot.  My design required pivoting the quilt back and forth and that got tedious pretty quickly.  I switched to free motion quilting which sacrificed straight lines and precision but the process was a lot more enjoyable.  (Especially having fixed the bobbin tension issues.) 

At some point I started to quilt some curves, but disliked the look.  I ripped them out and continued quilting straight lines.  I really like the designs over the gold and white (the black is quilted, too, but does not stand out).  I extended those patterns across the border as well.

I picked a flange binding to finish it off.  The quilt was flat and square before binding it and after it was all wavy (although still square).  I was so bummed.  I don't know what I did wrong - it looked awful on the wall.  Ironing it didn't help.

I have only blocked one or two other quilts in the past.  I soaked and blocked this one and was rather impressed with the results.  Not totally flat, but wow what a difference!  It looks far better on the wall than before.  It's currently hanging in the dining room until I figure out which wall it belongs for the long haul.  

 

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