First Finished Quilt!

(Let me just say that I wanted to put about 18 more exclamation points on that title, but decided to show a little restraint. No one likes gratuitous punctuation.)

WOW it feels good to finish a quilt.

But weirdly, I also felt a tad bit sad as I came to those last few stitches on the binding. It was like the end of our working relationship. At least she (are quilts female like ships?) is sticking around.

But mostly it just feels good. And now, way too many pictures from a day that involved way too many degrees fahrenheit...

 But all that sun sure is nice on the texture. Oh the texture!

Here you can see the full quilting design. Basically an echoing X. I wanted to do something to contrast all the parallel and perpendicular-ness of the pattern.

I did some unplanned piecing on the back for fun. Because you know, that's what all the hip quilters do now :)

He's a fan. We've been reading together under it in the very early mornings. There are about ten minutes of semi-quilty temps there before the stifling heat settles in for the day. That's our buddy Zaire helping us show it off.

Some deets:

The pattern is "Fenced In" from Elizabeth Hartman's book. 

The solids are Bella and the gray print on the back and binding is Robert Kaufman's Metro Living.

I made this for the modern quilting class I took at Sewn, taught by the lovely Heather Jones. 

I did the binding all by machine, which she has a very clear tutorial for here.
The batting is Kyoto bamboo blend.

I did the quilting all on my basic Brother. I was using my walking foot, which I thought was great. But then when I got about 2/3 of the way thru the close together lines, my machine started making loud punching noises and the stitches suddenly looked like crap. I adjusted and cleaned every little thing I could think of, but nothing helped. Then after leaving it for 4 days, I finally just continued quilting on my normal foot. From then on, things went swimmingly. So I don't know what would happen if I tried a brand new walking foot. It really didn't feel any more difficult to  move thru the machine without it. But if you look at those lines going through the wider spaces, (which I did last) you can tell the fabric pulled a little in the direction I was sewing. I don't think there are any puckers, it's just a little pulled. I still love the look of it, like there are two different textures on the quilt. Anyway, I know most people who do their own quilting are adamant about the walking foot, but is there anyone else who skips it? 

So that's it, my first quilt! I have many more ideas brewing...  Thanks for looking and always encouraging whatever I'm making. The crafty interwebs are the nicest.