Sams Birthday Quilt - Parts 3, 4, 5, ...

When I last posted I had just completed the patchwork portion of Sam's Birthday quilt.  Well, it is finished now (hence, the lack of posting).

I went with an orange border around the patchwork.

Apparently I skipped taking any photos of my "quilt sandwich" but I decided on a solid blue back for the quilt and the batting was Fairfield Family of Cottons 80/20 blend in purple packaging (sorry, that was for my reference). 

No pictures of the actual quilting either.  Apparently I was in a rush to get this done.  The quilting is simple - around each square of the patchwork.

I also didn't take any pictures of the binding process.  I decided on solid blue for that too.  I watched several tutorials that were helpful and made it much easier but I didn't make note of the links to share them with you.  With Ray's quilt I had made a double fold bias tape which was a real pain.  With Sam's I made a single fold tape (you should have seen how long it was!) and lined the raw edge up to the edge of the quilt (on the top of the quilt), sewed a 1/2 seam and then just folded the tape to the back edge and sewed again.  (Again, more information for myself.)

 

Tahda!  Here is the finished quilt.  Sam really likes it and has been sleeping with it the past few nights.  I guess my stress about getting it done for his birthday turned it into an early birthday present!  I'm happy with it but would have liked it to be a little thicker (I'll have to research batting). 

 

I especially like the "secret" message I "wrote" with some embrodiery floss on a scrap of orange fabric and attatched to the back of the quilt.