Not So Gross finishes nicely

I mentioned in my last post that the Not So Gross Quilt had been picked up again after a "temporary" abandonment since July - ahem!

This was Not So Gross as I left her then

and here she is now

sporting white borders, quilting which is not wiggly lines (please note as it doesn't happen often!) and yummy Kona Cactus binding.

Wavy lines have become my favourite quilting style this year because a) I think they look good, b) they look slightly modern in style, thereby making me appear cooler than I am (who am I kidding?) and c) they are a relatively quick quilting method for a girl who's really more a patchworker than a quilter at heart.

However, this quilt top wasn't really speaking wavy lines to me when it came time to consider quilting her. I felt I needed to preserve the steps and stairs look of the patchwork and so some echo quilting in the white spaces seemed more appropriate.  When I got to the blank, and frankly not very interesting, space of the border I wondered if I might bring the wiggles back but experiment a little and try to make the wiggles overlap.  Then I saw exactly what I had in my head on this gorgeous cushion from Jeliquilts and knew I had to give it a go.

I would say while the first efforts were a bit dodgy (see right border), these intertwining waves got better as I went along (see bottom border).  I found it difficult to keep them wide so that the the shapes created by the interlocking lines of stitching looked more interesting, but think I was getting there by the third and fourth sides of the border, and it is something I would like to try again.

Not So Gross is now waiting patiently in line for her turn in my washing machine (where did all that laundry come from?) before she will be donated to Bee Blessed.

Details for making the blocks for this quilt are here if you are interested.