The end.

On Saturday night (or was it during the wee hours of Sunday morning?), I finally finished my quilt. Well, I suppose it wasn't fully finished until later Sunday morning, when I threw it in the washer and dryer to shrink it and crinkle it up, and then trimmed off a million loose threads (this is, after all, a Ragged Squares Quilt - not to be confused with the currently-popular Rag Quilts. But I digress.)

We will be moving Mallory into a bed next weekend, probably, and though she doesn't need the quilt right away - she has a duvet, and frankly, she still just kicks off her blankets, anyway - I'm glad to have it done, if only for decorative effect. Mallory likes playing with it, too, something she wasn't allowed to do while I finished the binding. She likes to spread it out on the floor and then crawl underneath it, pull it up to her chin, and pretend to go to sleep. If only it were that easy every night.

Speaking of the binding... I had no idea that was going to be the most time-consuming part of the entire project! Once I had the squares assembled for the top (layering a 3", 6" and 9" square on top of each other), it took only about 3-1/2 hours to put them together in a 8x11 square grid to complete the quilt top. The binding took an evening to cut, sew, and attach to the front of the quilt by machine. It then took (I'm guessing) another 8 or 9 hours to sew by hand onto the back. I thought I would speed through this part during a couple of evenings in front of the TV, but I soon found that you can't really pay attention to your sewing and to the TV at the same time. And really, was I going to miss out on the season opener of Lost this week for the sake of my quilt? No way.Instead, I finished it up while re-watching the season opener on Saturday night. ABC reran it just for me. That time around, I already knew what was going to happen so I could listen along without missing out on any key plot points. I also listened along to half of an SNL repeat. Repeats, it turns out, are a very good way to get a project done.
I didn't take Dawn up on her suggestion to embroider something on the back of the quilt because frankly, after completing the quilt itself, I am all ambitioned out. I just don't have it in me to do any more. I did pick up this cute little tag at the fabric shop back when I was buying my batting, though, and I think it's an appropriate sentiment.
I'm so glad I chose to do this project... I don't think I can state enough how much I love the result. Or maybe I have stated it enough, and you really understand. Regardless... this is one of those "I rock!" projects for me, the kind where I feel ready to take on the world and feel like there's nothing I can't do now. First comes quilting... next, scaling Mt. Everest, perhaps??

Anyway... here's a full list of credits.

The instructions for the quilt that spawned the whole idea in the first place are here. I took a couple liberties to make changes - namely, deciding to make my quilt 8x11 squares rather than 9x11 squares (for a twin bed) when I mis-cut a piece of fabric and found myself short. The thing is still huge; I'm glad I didn't order more fabric, wait for it to arrive, and make the job that much more daunting.

The fabric I used is from the Freshcut line by Heather Bailey - found here. Except that I bought it from a few different Etsy sellers. A set of 34 fat quarters, a set of 20 6" pre-cut squares and one more yard of one of the prints for the binding was what it took to put it together. I also bought 5 meters of flannel for the backing.

I pre-washed the flannel, since it shrinks quite a bit in the wash, but didn't pre-wash the other fabric. Seems like this was a good way to go.

There's another website that had great photos + instructions detailing how to assemble the binding, but I don't have the link saved here. I'll update to include it when I can.

Now go make something. :)