Quilt of Valour Progress

Now that the Minor Hockey season has finished I am getting a lot more quilting done on the weekends! :) I worked hard on my Quilt of Valour this weekend and it's almost finished.

 Here are the blocks on the floor ready to be sewn together. At this point I decided to try to get my old machine working so I could do a zig zag sitch around the edges of the leaves. (The Juki only does straight stitch.) So in a last ditch effort I changed the needle to a brand new needle and it worked! So I went around the edge of each maple leaf in matching thread on Saturday.
Pattern is "Oh, Canada" by Cheryl Arkinson. Pieced and Quilted by Anita LaHay.
Then on Sunday I sewed the top together, layered the quilt sandwich and spray basted. I quilted with stippling in the white and straight lines in the coloured side bars of the flags. Here it is trimmed and ready for batting. Oh, the complaining from my husband who was telling me how painful it was crouching down and holding this quilt up for me! You might be able to see his fingers at the top corners. Quilter's husbands have it rough eh? Last night I made the binding and sewed it to the front. Today after work I made the label and sewed it to the back. I am going to snuggle in for the rest of the evening and work on hand sewing the binding down to the backing. I'm about halfway through with that last step. I am looking forward to getting this quilt off in the mail to a Canadian soldier suffering with PTSD.

I have also added to my fabric and quilting book collections. That's the handy thing about working... less time for quilting... but more disposable income. :) I'm thinking of writing quilting book reviews on the blog so I'll keep you posted on that idea.

Linking up with WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced