Flannel Quilt

When last you saw my current project (on the kitchen floor) I had all the rows together and the top was nearly complete. I put an additional strip of flannel on each end to get the length I wanted. Then I went looking for backing fabric.

I didn't have to look far. In my closet I found two pieces of cotton I'd purchased in 1994 or 1995, intending to use them in a quilt for our own bed. That quilt never materialized (obviously!) and the fabrics were still there, waiting to be used. There wasn't enough yardage in either one of them to make the back out of just one of the prints so I combined them by splitting one in half and inserting the other up the middle. In the shot below you should be able to see the two different, yet similar, prints. (Sorry the picture is so dark. This was photographed in the living room where the light is very poor.)


And here's the top laid out on the backing, waiting to see whether I have a piece of batting in the house big enough to do the job...


Hurray! There was! This quilt is small enough that I was able to layer it up (backing, batting, pieced top) on the living room floor. Then my Dear Husband brought in an eight foot banquet table, set it up in front of the couch, and I tied the quilt with a deep red cotton floss while watching TV.

Yesterday I found an old red paisley print in my stash for the binding. Ta daa! A finished quilt before the first Trick-or-Treater rang the bell!

I was actually a little surprised that I got the binding sewn down so quickly. Perhaps more surprising is the fact that I made this quilt, start to finish, in about 10 days. I didn't think I had it in me to pull off such a stunt! Of course, I don't have a job outside the home or children under foot or anything like that to keep me from the sewing machine. Still, I believe I'm going to bask in the glow of a quilt that turned out well (in my eyes at least) for today and look for a box to ship it in tomorrow... and you know what? There are STILL flannel scraps left over!