FF: Turquoise Deliciousness!

It's done!

My older sister is one of my favorite people on the planet, and around May, I decided I wanted to make her a quilt for her birthday in June. Added bonus? My brother-in-law's birthday is also in June, so I intended it for both of their birthdays. Easy peasy, right? I'd have it done by the end of July for sure, right?

Wrong.

When I calculated out my fabric requirements, I forgot to consider seam allowance, so I had to go back to the fabric store twice to purchase additional fabric. When I finished the top, I wasn't sure how to quilt it or what kind of backing I wanted to use. I had other deadlines pop up, and this quilt sat patiently waiting.

I ultimately wound up using a gray sheet and quilted it with a mixture of FMQ and straight lines in black, turquoise, and ice blue thread.

You can see the quilting a bit better on the back. Some squares were really dense (you can see the pebbling in the bottom left corner) and some squares were not. I have a post with some close-ups of the quilting here.

I modeled this quilt from Julie Herman's Raspberry Dessert from her book Skip the Borders. Her quilt is set on point, which is really striking, but I decided to nix that in favor of setting them traditionally, which was much easier and gave the quilt a very different look that I loved. My version measures 60" x 80", and it is the largest quilt I've pieced and quilted myself. I wasn't a huge fan of wrestling it through Agatha's throat space, but we made do, and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be if I'm being truly honest. I bound it in the dark fabric I used in the center of the squares, and after a couple of marathon binding/Miss Marple/Murder She Wrote sessions with my quilting sensei K, the binding was practically done.

I dropped it in the mail yesterday morning, and my sister and brother-in-law should have it sometime next week. I enjoyed making this quilt, and I hope the recipients love it too! I'm linking up today with Finish It Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts and TGIFF hosted this week by M-R of Quilts Matters. It's also a finish off my Q3 FAL list! Woo!