Criss Cross Finished!

I am so happy to announce that I have finished my Criss Cross quilt - including the binding and label! That must be a record for me - to make a quilt (not a mini!) from start to finish within 5 months! I easily finished quilting the border feathers, but when I was working on the binding, I just wasn't happy with how the quilt was laying. Some of the blocks were really lumpy and I just kept looking at the puffy finished quilt and not liking it.

I kept asking myself "what would make me like this quilt more"? And unfortunately my answer was always "more quilting". But I didn't want to do more quilting because:

a) I have a thousand other projects waiting for attention,

b) I had already put the binding on, and taking it off was not negotiable and

c) I wasn't sure if I had enough thread left! Eventually I just decided that I would keep on quilting until I liked it!

I don't think I have ever done additional quilting after I have finished a binding, but I did with this quilt! I just did more feathery looking loops inside the blocks, adding additional loops if it was still puffy, like this block on the left. I was threatening the blocks to lay flat or be quilted into submission!

And here is the finished quilt, which is laying marvelously flat!

And here is the leftover thread - hardly enough to quilt another puffy block! What great luck!

And my other great luck story is that I met one of my favorite theatre actors on the weekend. And even better than that, is in real life he is warm, friendly and generous with his fans. And EVEN better than that, I got my picture taken with him. Here I am - a very excited fan (don't mind my glow sticks - you need these fashion accessories to see the show!) with Sterling Jarvis, who was previously in the "Lion King", and is now playing Hilary Duff (don't ask!) in "We Will Rock You" at the Panasonic Theatre in Toronto.

If my life gets any better, I won't be able to stand it!!