Requiem to a Requiem

Well, late last night, with sore fingers and red eyes, I finished the last stitches on the Requiem quilt. I am really happy with how the colour combination turned out. The blue on the edge is more of a teal, as you can see by the contrast with the blue of our bedsheets. Strangely, it isn't really the same blue as the blue in the flowers (despite the fabrics being from the same fabric collection.) Still, I think it goes very well. And the nice grassy green on the back is not something I'd always go for, but it looks great here, I think.

It's funny, actually -- as I was doing the handstitching of the binding to the back of the quilt, I was thinking about how it might be the most enjoyable part of the whole process. Then I realized that I'd been saying that about every step of the quilt, from fabric to sewing to arranging to quilting. I guess I just have to face the fact that I am a quilter, through and through.
As far as the binding goes, I normally just use a basic whipstitch to attach it to the back, but this time I decided to make it an opportunity to practice an applique stitch technique, since I have at least one applique quilt in my future. Perhaps you can see from this photo (click for ridiculously big) that the stitches in applique are practically invisible. (If I was smarter, I would have provided a comparison photo with a whipstitch on my last quilt. I'm not that smart.)


So the quilt has received a good review, having been slept under (or around or whatever) for one night so far. I don't think I ever mentioned that I used a cotton batting, with what is considered in the quilt world a 'high loft.' Let me just say that high loft cotton is not a particularly high loft, although it is nice to hand quilt and certainly makes a quilt that is a nice temperature, but not too warm for the summer. One day I am going to try a quilt with wool batting and see how snuggly and warm it will be for winter.

Having finished this one, I am beginning to consider the colour layout for the next, though I'm taking a day or two before I really tuck into it.

I am also knitting off and on, on the Mystery Shawl -- about 60% done the third clue, and today I downloaded the fourth, which is pretty huge. I'm really enjoying that, too, though obviously lace knitting takes a lot more concentration than handquilting does. Hopefully in a day or two I'll have the third clue finished and I'll try to manage a decent photo.