ZigZag finish

While I had a willing and tall(er) volunteer this morning (my son), I had him hold up last night's finish, fresh from the dryer:

54" x 72"

I ended up using a variegated red/black thread in a linked diamond pattern for the red strips, and the hodgepodge assortment of 2" bias binding strips/scraps I had collected, sewn end-to-end until I had enough to go around the perimeter. I machine bound this one, sewing the bias strip to the back, folding over to the front, and stitching it down. With a 1" folded width, it's easier to get the bias strip over and covering the bobbin thread (from attaching the binding), and I can stitch just a tad further away from the edge. No danger of accidentally running off the side of the bias strip and having to back up and restitch to get it caught securely!

I'm very pleased to have this as a start to a new donation pile.

While he was still in holding mode, I asked him to display the backing for my MEQ/Pinwheel project:

The plan

The reality

This will be a much larger quilt, plus I've added roughly 8" to both directions so I won't be in danger of running out of backing before I run out of top. After I finished sewing this together last week, I found three 5" squares of yet more chicken-themed fabric (leftovers from the Cabana bags I made years ago), so I sewed them onto both sides of the label and will insert that strip somewhere in this. I'll probably replace a 5"x19" hunk of the light yellow seen in the lower right--that's an easily-used neutral, a piece of which I'd welcome back into the stash.