Face It!

Yesterday, I finally found a bit of time to begin the steps of finishing the fuchsia quilt.  (Yeah, sorry, you're probably getting tired of seeing this...) First, squaring up -- there is something about the quilt blocks on two sides that creates an optical illusion of being out-of-square, and that stumped me for a while.  I kept measuring and marking.  I pulled out the Ricky Tims DVD on finishing techniques ("Grand Finale")  to remind myself about what HE does to square up quilts -- his finishing techniques are impeccable and I highly recommend the DVD.  More measuring, more marking, and finally I trimmed.  Sheesh. The quilt is actually square in this shot, although I think the photographic angle (necessitated by my shoving myself up against the closet door behind the sewing table to get an almost-straight-on shot of my teeny design wall behind the door) makes it look wonky. Oh, and after I took the shot, I trimmed a few inches off of the top edge, so the leaves feel more like they're at the top and not hanging there in the middle. Nothing like making precisely pieced blocks to hack them all off...

Then, I turned to my friend Brenda, who just happens to be an expert on finishing techniques!  I have a copy of her DVD on finishing techniques, so I popped that in to the computer to see her tips for making the best facing.  Excellent!  Brenda provides a free tutorial on her facing technique here, in case you need help as I did.

And that consumed my fabric-play time yesterday.  Sigh.  I am looking forward to sitting down with a movie and hand-sewing the facing, now.