It's finished.

I blew the goal of having this done by Livi's birthday this past Tuesday but I exceeded my expectations by having this done less than a week belated.

Last night I finished the last stitching the last of the binding on Olivia's birthday quilt. This is the largest one I've ever done measuring just a bit shorter than a twin size. (Because I just winged it and should have MEASURED how big it needed to be.)

I messed up on this quilt. A lot. It's an alternating 9-patch and I used a new method of quilting I hadn't tired before called "quilt as you go". The method wasn't hard at all but I had the brilliant idea of sewing 1/4" away from each seam instead of quilting the whole thing, and then doing the same on the seams where the pieces were joined including the backing. My machine doesn't have a long enough arm for this. It ended in me swearing a lot and shoving the fabric through. The results could be better. Maybe I'll fix it if I ever get a new machine.

The border is the same stripey fabric that appears regularly in the quilt. And the back is a full size white sheet I picked up at IKEA for $7 and hand dyed bright orange. Here is another place I had a learning experience. The dye didn't take fully in my very-large-for-canning-very-small-for-dying-fabric stock pot. So I had to redo it in the galvanized tub we use to wash the dog. Still the price of the dyes and fabric came to less than $15. There are still some lighter spots on it. ::Sigh::

Being the largest and most difficult quilt I've ever made and even with all the imperfections Olivia and her tribe are still pleased as punch with the results. Which is all I can ask for, really.